▪ I. gnarl, n.1
(nɑːl)
[Back-formation from gnarled. A n. knarle knot (of hair), occurs early in 17th c.]
A contorted knotty protuberance, esp. on a tree.
| 1824 Miss Mitford Village Ser. i. (1863) 184 The knots and gnarls of the exterior coat [of a tree]. 1866 Lowell Carlyle in Study Wind. (1886) 171 It is always the knots and gnarls of the oak that he admires. 1871 B. Taylor Faust (1875) I. xxi. 180 Living knots and gnarls uncanny Feel with polypus antennæ For the wanderer. |
▪ II. gnarl, n.2 rare—1.
[f. gnarl v.1]
A snarl.
| 1847 E. Brontë Wuthering Heights (1885) 4 My caress provoked [from the dog] a long guttural gnarl. |
▪ III. † gnarl, v.1 Obs.
(nɑːl)
[frequentative f. gnar v.]
1. intr. To snarl.
| 1593 Shakes. 2 Hen. VI, iii. i. 192 Thus is the Shepheard beaten from thy side, And Wolues are gnarling, who shall gnaw thee first. 1596 Nashe Saffron Walden 103 What will not a dogge doo that is angerd, bite and gnarle at anie bone or stone that is neere him. 1814 Cary Dante Inf. xxi. 129 Dost not mark How they do gnarl upon us. |
2. slang. (See quot.)
| 1812 J. H. Vaux Flash Dict., Gnarl, to gnarl upon a person is the same as splitting or nosing upon him; a man guilty of this treachery is called a gnarling scoundrel. |
Hence † ˈgnarling ppl. a., † ˈgnarler (see quot.).
| 1597 Shakes. Rich. II, i. iii. 292 (Qo. 1) For gnarling sorrow hath lesse power to bite, The man that mocks at it and sets it light. 1811 Lex. Balatron., Gnarler, a little dog that by his barking alarms the family when any person is breaking into the house. 1812 [see sense 2 above]. |
▪ IV. gnarl, v.2 Chiefly in pa. pple.
(nɑːl)
[Back-formation from gnarled.]
trans. To contort, twist, make knotted and rugged like an old tree. Also transf. and fig.
| 1814 Mermaid i. ii, Her lean large hands, So gnarl'd with bone, and shrivell'd without veins. 1844 Mem. Babylonian P'cess II. 74 Their roots being gnarled and distorted into extraordinary forms. 1853 Kane Grinnell Exp. xxii. (1856) 175 Limestone cliffs..forming stupendous piers gnarled by frost degradation. 1891 C. T. C. James Rom. Rigmarole ii. 11 Time had gnarled him a good deal, and seemed half inclined to tie him into a knot. |
Hence ˈgnarling vbl. n.
| 1885 Atlantic Monthly Apr. 443 Some grotesque gnarling of limbs..of the great trees that stretched above. |
▪ V. gnarl, v.3 dial.
(nɑːl)
trans. To gnaw.
| 1821 Clare Vill. Minstr. I. 202 The little chumbling mouse Gnarls the dead leaves for her house. 1855 Robinson Whitby Gloss., To Gnarl, to gnaw as a mouse. |