Forms: α. 4–6 knobbe, (7 knobb, knobe), 6– knob. β. 5–7 nobbe, 7–9 nob. [ME., = MLG. and mod.G. knobbe knot, knob, bud, etc., Flem. knobbe(n lump (of bread, etc.): cf. KNOP, NOB, KNUB, NUB.]
1. A small rounded lump or mass, esp. at the extremity or on the surface of something, as on a stick, a branch or trunk of a tree, a plate of glass (see BULL’S-EYE 1), the antenna of an insect, the pistil of a flower, etc.; a rounded protuberance, boss, stud; the handle of a door or drawer, the hinder end of a gun (see CASCABEL).
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVII. clxi. (MS. Bodl.), lf. 230 b/2. Hurden,… is clensing of offal of hempe oþer of flaxe … þerof is þrede sponne þt is fulle grete: vneuen and ful of nobbes.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 280/1. Knobbe, or knotte yn a tre, vertex.
1557–8. Phaër, Æneid, VII. U j b. Another caught a clubbe, with heauy knobbes.
1611. Coryat, Crudities, 15. He had a long staffe in his hand with a nobbe in the middle, according to the fashion of those Pilgrims staffes.
1774. Foote, Cozeners, III. Wks. 1799, II. 190. That … is a watch: if you touch the nob that juts out, it strikes … like a clock.
1776–96. Withering, Brit. Plants (ed. 3), I. 184. Pist[il] … Style thread-shaped…. Summit a knob.
1833. J. Holland, Manuf. Metal, II. 278. The bolt is moved by … a fixed knob or handle, as in the common door catch.
1842–76. Gwilt, Archit. (ed. 7), § 1872 a, The great advantage of sheet glass is that of … avoiding the waste arising from … the knob or bull’s eye in the centre.
1894. R. Bridges, Feast Bacchus, V. 1574. A little knob of a nose.
b. A rounded protuberance or swelling on the skin or on a bodily organ; a bump, hump, wart, pimple, pustule, etc. Obs. or merged in 1.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Prol., 633. The knobbes sittynge on his chekes.
c. 1490. Promp. Parv., 280/1 (MS. K.). Knobbe of a mannys hande, or in another part of him [a. 1485 MS. S. knoble; 1499 ed. Pynson knolle], callus.
1530. Palsgr., 326/2. Kyrnell or knobbe in the necke or otherwhere, glandre.
1599. Shaks., Hen. V., III. vi. 108. His face is all bubukles and whelkes, and knobs, and flames a fire.
1747. Wesley, Prim. Physick (1762), 39. It also dissolves any Knob or swelling in any part.
1822–34. Good’s Study Med. (ed. 4), II. 517. The dark-coloured or hepatised knobs.
c. The bud or rudiment of a horn; in quot. fig.
1664. Butler, Hud., II. i. 47/658. Those knobs, that grow Much harder, on the marry’d Brow.
d. Arch. A rounded prominence or boss of carved work, esp. at the end of a raised molding or at the intersection of ribs.
1730. W. Warren, Collectanea, in Willis & Clark, Cambridge (1886), I. 230. The Cieling being Timber-work, Pannels and Knobs.
1850. Weale, Dict. Terms, Knot or Knob, a boss; a round bunch of leaves or flowers, or other ornament of a similar kind.
2. A prominent isolated rounded mound or hill; a knoll; a hill in general; esp. in U.S.
1650. T. B., Worcester’s Apoph., 30. The ground … is said to rise up, in a round Knob; whereupon St. David pitched his Crosse.
1791. W. Bartram, Carolina, 338. The surface of the land … is … uneven, occasioned by natural mounds or rocky knobs.
1812. Brackenridge, Views Louisiana (1814), 108. Those dividing ridges of streams, which in Kentucky, are called knobs.
1863. in E. Hitchcock, Remin. Amherst Coll., 241. The next class opened a road with great labor to the top of Hilliard’s Knob, the highest point of the Holyoke range.
1872. Jenkinson, Guide Eng. Lakes (1879), 8. The rocky knob called Whitemoss Howe.
3. A small lump (of sugar, coal, etc.). Also KNUB, NUB.
1676. Worlidge, Cyder (1691), 150. Bottling it with a knob of sugar.
1768–74. Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1834), I. 70. Is your tea bitter? You may sweeten it by putting in a knob of sugar.
1801. Wolcott (P. Pindar), Ep. to Ct. Rumford, Wks. 1812, V. 144. Rummage the dark Coal-hole of his brain But not one Knob is in it.
1865. Gd. Words, Feb., 125/1. These children … when they are ‘very good,’ and work hard,… sometimes get a ‘knob o’ suck’ … on Saturday.
4. slang. The head. Usually NOB, q.v.
1725. New Cant. Dict., Knob, the Head or Skull.
1888. M. Robertson, Lombard St. Myst., xvi. It were s’posed the guilty deed were one too much for ’is knob.
1899. R. Whiteing, No. 5 John St., xxvii. They invariably … ‘ketch it in the knob’ in the form of bilious headache.
5. A small collection of widgeons, dunbirds, teals, or the like.
1875. ‘Stonehenge,’ Brit. Sports, I. I. ix. § 1. A ‘knob’ is a still smaller number [than 30] of the above birds [wildfowl].
6. = KNOBSTICK 2.
1838. Ann. Reg., 204/1, note. The chastisement of ‘knobs,’ the assassination of oppressive and tyrannical masters.
† 7. Phr. To make no knobs: to make no difficulty, not to hesitate. (Cf. ‘to make no bones.’)
1677. Cary, Chronol., II. ii. III. xvi. 259. Instead of 6 Centuries defalked by the Jews, they make no Knobs in cutting off 9 of them together.
8. attrib. and Comb., as knob-end, tail; knob-billed, -like, -nosed adjs.; knob-fly, a kind of fly used in angling; knob-hole, a hole for the insertion of a knob; knob-lock, a lock that is opened with a knob. Also KNOBSTICK, -WEED, etc.
1878. Gould, Birds N. Guinea, V. pl. 50. *Knob-billed Fruit-Pigeon.
1894. ‘J. S. Winter,’ Red Coats, 65. He came to a door on which he rapped with the *knob-end of his stick.
1829. Glover’s Hist. Derby, I. 177. The following … are well known to the expert angler; viz. barm fly, black fly,… *knob fly.
1851. Illustr. Catal. Gt. Exhib., 1458. The *knob holes of the curtains form, in stitching, the grape leaf.
1861. Bentley, Man. Bot., 51. In touching a nettle lightly, the *knob-like head is broken off, and the sharp point of the sting enters the skin.
1813. Examiner, 9 May, 294/2. J. Charlesworth,… *knob-lock-maker.
1887. Ruskin, Præterita, II. ix. 331. A … snub- or rather *knob-nosed … simpleton.
1836. T. Hook, G. Gurney, I. 212. An old buck-rabbit with a *nob tail.
