1. Any of various fastenings formed by looping and tying a rope (or cord) upon itself or to another rope or to another object
   "The sailor tied a bowline knot to secure the boat"
    
2. A tight cluster of people or things
   "a small knot of women listened to his sermon"; "the bird had a knot of feathers forming a crest"
    
3. Something twisted and tight and swollen
   "their muscles stood out in knots"; "his stomach was in knots";
   - gnarl
    
4. A hard cross-grained round piece of wood in a board where a branch emerged
   "the saw buckled when it hit a knot"
    
5. Soft lump or unevenness in a yarn; either an imperfection or created by design
   "The knots in the fabric added an interesting texture to the garment";
   - slub, burl
    
6. (of ships and wind) a unit of speed equal to one nautical mile per hour or about 1.15 statute miles per hour
   "The ship was travelling at a speed of 20 knots"
    
7. A sandpiper that breeds in the Arctic and winters in the Southern Hemisphere
   "Thousands of knots stopped at the bay during their long migration";
   - greyback [Brit, Cdn], grayback [US], Calidris canutus
    
8. A unit of speed equal to one nautical mile per hour
   "The ship was travelling at a speed of 15 knots"

1. Tie or fasten into a knot
   "knot the shoelaces"
    
2. Make into knots; make knots out of
   "She knotted her fingers"
    
3. Make more complicated or confused
   "The situation knotted as conflicting reports emerged";
   - ravel, tangle

Sounds like: knocking, nockknot

Derived forms: knots, knotted, knotting

Type of: bind, bunch, clump, cluster, clustering, distorted shape, distortion, enlace, entwine, fastener, fastening, fixing, holdfast, interlace, intertwine, interwind, intwine [archaic], lace, make from scratch, raggedness, rate, roughness, sandpiper, tie, twine, wood

Part of: board, Calidris, genus Calidris, plank

Encyclopedia: Knot, Nancowry