knot

KNOT, noun not. [Latin nodus; probably connected with knit, but perhaps from swelling or gathering.] 1. The complication of threads made by knitting; a tie; union of cords by interweaving; as a knot difficult to be untied. 2. Any figure, the lines of which frequently intersect each other; as a knot in gardening. In beds and curious knots. 3. A bond of association or union; as the nuptial knot 4. The part of a tree where a branch shoots. 5. The protuberant joint of a plant. 6. A cluster; a collection; a group; as a knot of ladies; a knot of figures in painting. 7. Difficulty; intricacy; something not easily solved. 8. Any intrigue or difficult perplexity of affairs. 9. A bird of the genus Tringa. 10. An epaulet. 11. In seamen's language, a division of the logline, which answers to half a minute, as a mile does to an hour, or it is the hundred and twentieth part of a mile. Hence, when a ship goes eight miles an hour, she is said to go eight knots. KNOT, verb transitive not. To complicate or tie in a knot or knots; to form a knot 1. To entangle; to perplex. 2. To unite closely. KNOT, verb intransitive not. To form knots or joints, as in plants.