knob
/nɒb/ (bre, ipa) · /nɑːb/ (ame, ipa) · /ˈnäb/ (ame, mw)
knob — noun
- knobsingular
- knobsplural
1. a small ball-shaped piece sticking out from a machine, radio, or oven that you t
a small ball-shaped piece sticking out from a machine, radio, or oven that you twist with your fingers to change a setting; also the round piece fixed onto a door or drawer that you grip to pull it open.
Amihan turned the oven knob to two hundred degrees and slid in the tray of biscuits.
collocation: turn the knob
The brass door knob felt cold under Defne's hand as she stepped into the silent hallway.
compound: door knob
Ramón fiddled with the volume knob on the old radio until the song came through clearly.
Someone had glued the drawer knob back on with too much yellow glue, and it sat crooked.
Press the red button first, then twist the small knob on the right to set the timer.
用法筆記
Often appears in compounds like 'door knob', 'drawer knob', 'volume knob', 'control knob'. Distinguish from sense 2: this sense is always something a person grips or turns; sense 2 is just a bump that no one operates.
常見錯誤
2. a ball-shaped bump or swelling that rises from where one thing meets another — f
a ball-shaped bump or swelling that rises from where one thing meets another — for example, the wooden ball on the tip of a walking stick, or a bony lump where a tree branch has been cut off.
The walking stick had a polished wooden knob carved into the shape of a small owl's head.
collocation: wooden knob
Jude ran a finger along the rough knob on the old oak tree where a branch had broken off.
scene: lump on a tree
A small bony knob stuck out at the end of the dog's tail where the vet had stitched it.
The iron bed had a brass knob fixed onto each of its four corner posts.
- lump
more general; any irregular mass, not necessarily round
- bump
any raised area on a surface; a knob is more clearly ball-shaped
- protuberance
formal, often medical or scientific
- dent
an inward hollow, opposite of an outward lump
用法筆記
Subject is usually a surface or an object that ends in this rounded shape. Distinguish from sense 1: a sense-2 knob is decorative or structural; nobody turns it.
3. a small ball-sized piece of a soft solid food, used most often when talking abou
a small ball-sized piece of a soft solid food, used most often when talking about butter that you add to a hot pan or a finished dish.
Diya dropped a knob of butter into the hot pan and watched it melt around the onions.
pattern: a knob of butter into a pan
Stir a generous knob of butter into the mashed potatoes just before you serve them.
pattern: stir a knob of butter into [food]
Kenji grated a knob of fresh ginger over the bowl of noodle soup at the table.
The recipe asks for a small knob of butter and two spoons of honey, nothing more.
文法句型
a knob of [butter/ginger]
用法筆記
Almost always 'a knob of butter' (or sometimes ginger); the pattern is 'a knob of + soft solid'. Common in British recipes and cooking shows; American recipes usually say 'a pat of butter' or 'a tablespoon of butter' instead.
常見錯誤
4. a rude British slang word for the male sex organ.
a rude British slang word for the male sex organ.
The teenagers were sent home after one of them drew a knob on the school wall in chalk.
scene: graffiti slang
Talia hated the way the boys at the back of the bus kept making knob jokes the whole ride.
collocation: knob jokes (slang)
The comedian's whole set was just knob jokes, and the audience grew quiet after ten minutes.
Lauren refused to print the cartoon because it showed a knob in clear view on the front page.
用法筆記
Rude / taboo slang in British English; avoid in writing and in any formal or polite setting. The fixed phrase 'knob jokes' (cheap jokes about male genitals) is the most common everyday collocation a learner will hear.
5. a rude British slang word that you call a man (or rarely a woman) when you think
a rude British slang word that you call a man (or rarely a woman) when you think he has behaved in a stupid, annoying, or unpleasant way.
Don't be such a knob, Christopher — Nkechi already told you the back seat was saved for an elderly lady.
pattern: don't be such a knob
Élise muttered that the man who cut in front of the queue at the bakery was a complete knob.
pattern: a complete knob
Rachid called his brother a knob for forgetting their mother's birthday again this year.
Isabela went silent in the kitchen, thinking what a knob the new manager had been at the staff meeting.
用法筆記
Rude British slang directed at people, almost always men. Less harsh than 'wanker' but still offensive — avoid in any polite or written setting. Often appears in fixed templates like 'don't be a knob', 'such a knob', 'a complete knob'.