knuckle
/ˈnʌkəl/ noun B2- Any of the joints between the bones of the fingers.
- A mechanical joint.
- The curved part of the cushion at the entrance to the pockets on a cue sports table.
- The kneejoint of a quadruped, especially of a calf; formerly, the kneejoint of a human being.
- A cut of meat of various kinds.
- A convex portion of a vessel's figure where a sudden change of shape occurs, as in a canal boat, where a nearly vertical side joins a nearly flat bottom.
- A contrivance, usually of brass or iron, and furnished with points, worn to protect the hand, to add force to a blow, and to disfigure the person struck; a knuckle duster. · brass knuckles
- The rounded point where a flat changes to a slope on a piste.
Plural knuckles
From the library
For a minute or two she stood looking at the house, and wondering what to do next, when suddenly a footman in livery came running out of the wood—(she considered him to be a footman because he was in livery: otherwise, judging by his face only, she would have called him a fish)—and rapped loudly at the door with his knuckles.
He held out his hand, and I saw in the light of the lamp that two of his knuckles were burst and bleeding.
I knocked him down, and the police have him in custody; but I can tell you with the most absolute confidence that no possible connection will ever be traced between the gentleman upon whose front teeth I have barked my knuckles and the retiring mathematical coach, who is, I daresay, working out problems upon a blackboard ten miles away.
He flew at me with his knife, and I had to grasp him twice, and got a cut over the knuckles, before I had the upper hand of him.
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