Knobby, adj. (common).—See Nobby.
Knob-of-Suck, subs. phr. (provincial).—A piece of sweetmeat.
1865. Good Words, Feb., p. 125. These children get an hour for
dinner, and when they are ‘very good’ and work hard they sometimes
get a knob-o’-suck on Saturday.
Knobstick (or Nobstick), subs. (workmen’s).—1. A non-society hand; dung
(q.v.); a rat (q.v.). Also, one who takes work under price, or
continues at work while his fellows are on strike. (2) A master who
does not pay his men at market rates.
1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. & Lond. Poor, iii. 220. I next went
to work at a under-priced hatter’s, termed a knobstick’s.
1855. Mrs. Gaskell, North and South, ch. xxv. ‘They would try and
get speech o’ th’ knobsticks, and coax ’em, and reason wi ’em, and
m’appen warn ’em off; but whatever came, the Committee charged all
members o’ th’ Union to lie down and die, if need were, without
striking a blow; and then they reckoned they were sure o’ carrying
th’public with them.’
1858. Notes and Queries, 1 S. ix. 373. In these days of strikes,
turn-outs, and lock-outs we hear ... much of knobsticks.
1860. Sir J. K. Shuttleworth, Scarsdale, ii. ch. ii. By picketing
the mills, by assaults on knobsticks.
1887. Contemporary Rev., li. 238. The knobstick takes away the
striker’s hope of bringing his employer to terms.
1887. Daily Telegraph, 1 July, 5. 8. Hundreds of windows at Dobson
and Barlow’s foundry, in which are knobsticks, or ‘importations’,
were broken.
1891. Pall Mall Gaz., 25 July, p. 2, col. 2. The fact must be borne
in mind that this advocate of physical force as an argument with
knobsticks is repudiated by the organization of his fellow-workers.
Knock, subs. (horse-dealers’).—1. A lame horse; an incurable screw
(q.v.). [The horse-dealer in Jonson’s Bartholemew Fair (1614), is
called Knockem].
1864. London Review, 18 June, p. 643. The knock, afflicted with
disease of the navicular joint, or shoulder lameness, neither of
which make any outward show, is a great favourite for horse-coping
purposes, as he is often a fine-looking animal.
2.—See verb.
Verb. (venery).—1. To copulate. Hence, knock, subs., (1) an act of
coition, and (2) the penis (see knack); knocking-shop (or -house) = a
brothel; knocking-jacket = a bed-gown; and knocker, (1) = the penis,
and (2) a performer (q.v.) male or female. [For possible derivation see
nock, subs., and quot. (Florio), 1598]. For synonyms see Greens and
Ride.
1560. Nice Wanton [Dodsley, Old Plays (1874), ii]. 170. Goldlocks
She must have knocks, Or else I do her wrong.
1598. Florio, Worlde of Wordes, Cunnuta, a woman nocked.
1611. Barry, Ram Alley, iii. 1. Comfort her tears, and say her
daughters match’d With one that has a knocker to his father.
1612. Field, Woman is a Weathercock, i. 2. You should be a knocker,
then, by the mother’s side.
1719. Durfey, Pills etc., iii. 48. Ladies, make room, behold I
come, Have at your knocking jackets.
1722. Ramsay, Fables & Tales, in Wks. (1851), iii. 170. For nought
delights him mair than knocking.
1823. Egan, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
2. (popular). To make an impression; to be irresistible; to fetch
(q.v.); to floor (q.v.).
1883. Referee, May 6, p. 3, col. 3. ‘It’s Never too Late to Mend,’
with J. H. Clynds as Tom Robinson, is knocking ’em at the Pavilion.