knuckle

Word family

Related topics: Human, Food

knuck·le1 /ˈnʌkəl/ noun [countableC]

1 HBHyour knuckles are the joints in your fingers, including the ones where your fingers join your hands 指节；指关节

Her knuckles whitened as she gripped the gun.

她紧紧握着枪，指关节都发白了。

2 DFa piece of meat around the lowest leg joint of a pig 〔猪的〕肘

a knuckle of pork

猪肘子

3 near the knuckle British EnglishBrE informalRUDE/OBSCENE rude, or likely to give offence 粗鲁的；近乎下流的

Some of his jokes are a bit near the knuckle.

他的一些笑话有点下流。

→ a rap on/over the knuckles at rap1(6), → rap somebody on/over the knuckles at rap2(5)

Examples from the Corpus

knuckle• Lee sat reading, folded over the book, chewing a knuckle now.• I clapped my gloves together, surprised when my bare knuckles smacked each other.• Beside them both, Cheryl Russell was sucking her bloodied knuckles.• Susan saw a smear of yellow paint across his knuckles.• He sighed a lot, stretched his legs, cracked his knuckles.• Karma Rubbish smokes at the end of the garden, cracking its knuckles to pass the time.• My consciousness was raised, my knuckles were rapped and I no longer write or think that way.• The power of the punch is concentrated in a small area of the knuckles.

knuckle2 verb

1 knuckle down phrasal verbphr v informal WORK HARDto suddenly start working or studying hard 〔突然〕开始努力工作[学习] SYN get down to

If he doesn’t knuckle down soon, he’ll never get through those exams.

他如果不快点用功，肯定通不过那些考试。

He is clearly ready to knuckle down to the task.

显然他已准备认真着手这项任务。

Examples from the Corpus

knuckle to• Social workers and their managers are clearly ready to knuckle down to the task of making the policy work for users.

2.knuckle under phrasal verbphr v informal OBEYto accept someone’s authority or orders although you do not want to 屈服；认输

Examples from the Corpus

knuckle• But he kept his anger under control and vowed to knuckle down and fight for a first-team future.• No attempts made to knuckle down and smarten up.• Male speaker I think we've got to knuckle down and work hard.• Social workers and their managers are clearly ready to knuckle down to the task of making the policy work for users.• Mollified, if not entirely convinced, Vincent went back to Mauve and tried hard to knuckle down.• Some coaches knuckle under to that.

Origin knuckle1

(1300-1400) Middle Low German knökel “small bone, knuckle”

knuck·le1 nounknuckle2 verb

Chinese

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