1811. Jane Austen, Sense and S., xix. Many young men, who had
chambers in the Temple, made a very good appearance in the first
circles, and drove about town in very knowing gigs.
1844. Puck, p. 14. With his weed in his cheek and his glass on his
eye, His cut-away neat, and knowing tie, The milliner’s hearts he
did trepan My spicy swell small-college man.
1861. T. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxford, i. 5. Tom thought his cap a
very knowing affair.
Knowing bloke, subs. phr. (military).—A sponger on new recruits.
c. 1887. Brunlees Patterson, Life in the Ranks. Some of the knowing
blokes, prominent among whom will be the ‘grousers,’ will, in all
probability, be chewing the rag or fat.
Knowledge, subs. (colloquial).—Sexual intercourse. For synonyms see
Greens and Ride.
Knowledge-box, subs. (common).—The head; the nous-box, (q.v.). For
synonyms see Crumpet.
1798. Poetry of Anti-jacobin, xxii. 116 [ed. 1801]. Coal-black is
my knowledge-box.
1819. Moore, Tom Crib, p. 17. Found his knowledge box always the
first thing.
1823. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, iii. 1. Jerry. Doctor! I touch’d
your knowledge box there, I think.
1840. C. Bronte, in Mrs. Gaskell’s Life, ch. ix. The wind ... has
produced the same effects on the contents of my knowledge-box that
a quaigh of usquebaugh does upon those of most other bipeds.
1868. Miss Braddon, Trail of the Serpent, Bk. vi. iii. The
gentlemen of the Prize ring were prepared to fight as long as they
had a bunch of fives to rattle upon the knowledge-box of the foe.
Knub, verb. (old).—To rub against; to tickle.
1653. Brome, The City Wit, in Wks. (1874), 1. 444. As you have
beheld two horses knubbing one another. Ka me, ka the, an old kind
of court service.
Knuck, subs. (old and American).—A thief. Short for knuckle (q.v.).
1834. Harrison Ainsworth, Rookwood. The knucks in quod did my
schoolmen play.
1851. Judson, Mysteries etc. of New-York, ch. iv. For many a year
it has been known the ‘crossmen’ and knucks of the town, as ‘Jack
Circle’s watering place.’ Ibid. You’re as good a knuck as ever
frisked a swell.
Verb. (American).—To steal. For synonyms see Prig.
1851. Judson, Myst. etc. of New-York, iv. It’s enough to break my
heart to see a man of your talent forced to prig prancers, knuck
trikers, and go on the low sneaks!
Knuckle, subs. (old).—See quot.
1781. Parker, View of Society. ‘Knuckle in the flash language
signifies those who hang about the lobbies of both Houses of
Parliament, the Opera-House, and both Play-Houses, and in general
wherever a great crowd assemble. They steal watches, snuff-boxes
etc.’
Verb. (thieves’).—1. To fight with fists; to pummel.
2. (thieves’).—To pick pockets: applied especially to the more refined
or artistic branch of the art, i.e. extracting notes or money from the
waistcoat, or breeches pockets, whereas ‘buzzing’ is used in a more
general sense.—De Vaux (1819). Also to go on the knuckle.
1754. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 43. s.v.
To knuckle (knuckle down to or knuckle under), verb. phr.
(colloquial).—1. See quots.
1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5th ed.). Knuckle-down (v.) to stoop,
bend, yield, comply with, or submit to.
b. 1794. Wolcot [P. Pindar], Ode to Tyrants, in Works (Dublin), v.
ii. p. 526. To knuckle down to Jove, And pray the gods to send an
Emp’ror down. Ibid. Rights of Kings. Poor gentlemen! how hard,
alas! their fate, To knuckle to such nuisances of State!
1846. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, ii. vii. So he knuckled down, again
to use his own phrase, and sent old Hulker with peaceable overtures
to Osborne.
1860. Chamber’s Journal, xiii. p. 289. Considering how he has
talked scoffingly of Benedict’s knuckling under and being second
best and of some one having always the whiphand of him and so on.
1869. Blackmore, Lorna Doone, liv. When the upperhand is taken upon
the faith of one’s patience by a man of even smaller wits ... why
it naturally happens that we knuckle under with an ounce of
indignation.
1888. Daily Chronicle, 31 Dec. He knuckled under to the last-named
at the second time of asking.
1888. Rolf Boldrewood, Robbery Under Arms, xxxvii. I wouldn’t
knuckle down to you like some of them.