A rocky mound.
1791. The surface of the land now for three or four miles is level, yet uneven, occasioned by natural mounds or rocky knobs, but covered with a good staple of rich earth, which affords forests of timber trees and shrubs.—W. Bartram, ‘Carolina,’ p. 338. (N.E.D.)
1834. At last a few short hills, here [in Illinois] called “knobs,” indicated our approach to Fever River.—C. F. Hoffman, ‘A Winter in the Far West,’ i. 300 (Lond., 1835).
1834. We were now entering what is called the knobs of Kentucky; a part of the state but little settled, and barren in comparison with the populous and fertile districts I had hitherto visited.—Id., ii. 169.
1835. Here and there the country swelled up into a higher level than ordinary, into singular ranges of lime-stone hills, surmounted by what are called ‘flint knobs,’ which rise not unfrequently some hundred feet above the general level of the country.—C. J. Latrobe, ‘The Rambler in North America,’ i. 123 (N.Y.).
1846. I am told that there is a great difference “before and after meat,” or rather fish, among the people of the sterile knobs along the Potomac river.—Mr. Cathcart of Indiana, House of Repr., Feb. 6: Cong. Globe, p. 322.
