ˈknock-kneed, a.
[f. prec. + -ed2.]
a. Having the legs bent inwards so that the knees knock together in walking. (The opposite of bandy-legged.)
| 1774 in Maryland Hist. Mag. (1911) VI. 41 Charles Blundell, an Englishman,..a very slender made fellow much knock-kneed, with light brown hair very short. 1806 W. Taylor in Ann. Rev. IV. 720 Parents, whose children from bad nursing are become knock-kneed. 1838 Dickens O. Twist xlii, Those long-limbed, knock-kneed, shambling, bony people. 1862 Sala Seven Sons I. vii. 142 The knock-kneed horse. |
b. fig. Halting; feeble.
| 1865 Dickens Mut. Fr. iii. iv, It was constitutionally a knock-knee'd mind. 1887 Saintsbury Hist. Elizab. Lit. i. 5 So stumbling and knock-kneed is his [Wyatt's] verse. 1898 Westm. Gaz. 7 Dec. 4/1 There are no shambling, knock-kneed verses. |