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knee

Syllabification: (knee)
Pronunciation: /nē/

Translate knee | into French | into German | into Italian | into Spanish
Definition of knee

noun

  • the joint between the thigh and the lower leg in humans.
  • the corresponding or analogous joint in other animals.
  • the upper surface of someone’s thigh when sitting; a person’s lap:they were eating their supper on their knees
  • the part of a garment covering the knee.
  • an angled piece of wood or metal frame used to connect and support the beams and timbers of a wooden vessel; a triangular plate serving the same purpose in a modern vessel.
  • an abrupt obtuse or approximately right-angled bend in a graph between parts where the slope varies smoothly.

verb (knees, kneeing, kneed)

[with object]
  • hit (someone) with one’s knee:she kneed him in the groin

Phrases

at one's mother's (or father's) knee

at an early age.

bend (or bow) the (or one's) knee

submit:a country no longer willing to bend its knee to foreign powers

bring someone/something to their/its knees

reduce someone or something to a state of weakness or submission.

fall (or drop, sink, etc.) to one's knees

assume a kneeling position.

on bended knee(s)

kneeling, especially when pleading or showing great respect:did he propose on bended knee?

on one's knees

in a kneeling position.
on the verge of collapse:when they took over, the newspaper was on its knees

weak at the knees

overcome by a strong feeling, typically desire.

Origin:

Old English cnēow, cnēo, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch knie and German Knie, from an Indo-European root shared by Latin genu and Greek gonu

knee in other Oxford dictionaries

Definition of knee in the British & World English dictionary

Nearby words

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