knar
(nɑː(r))
Forms: 3–4 knarre, 7, 9 knare, 9 knar, knaur; 5, 7 gnarre 9 gnar(r, 9– gnaur.
[ME. knarre = LG. knarre(n, Du. knar stump (of an old tree), knot, knob. Cf. knur.
The history in Eng. is obscure. From 14th to 19th c. there are app. no genuine examples of its use, Dryden's knare (copied by later writers) being based on knarie, knarry in Chaucer. The spelling with gn-, usual in recent glossaries, may be partly due to gnarled.]
1. A rugged rock or stone. Now dial.
| a 1250 Owl & Night. 999 That lond nis god,..Ac wildernisse hit is and weste, Knarres and cludes. 13.. Gaw. & Gr. Knt. 2166 Hyȝe bonkkez & brent..& ruȝe knokled knarrez, with knorned stonez. 1837 Thornber Hist. Blackpool 184 (E.D.D.) Gnarrs are large beds of stones, covered with incrustations formed by insects for their habitations. |
2. A knot in wood; spec. a mass orginating in an abortive branch, forming a protuberance covered with bark, on the trunk or root of a tree.
| 1382 Wyclif Wisd. xiii. 13 A crokid tree, and ful of knarres [1388 knottis]. 1623 Cockeram, Gnarre, a hard knot in wood. 1700 Dryden Palamon & Arc. 1146 Prickly stubs, instead of trees,..Or woods with knots and knares deformed and old. 1805 Miss Seward in Polwhele Trad. & Recoll. (1826) II. 572 The..knots and knares with which it was covered. 1814 Cary Dante's Inf. xiii. 4 Not light The boughs and tapering, but with knares deform'd. 1854 A. E. Baker Northampt. Gloss. s.v. (E.D.D.), The stick with which the game is played, having a gnar or knot at the end of it. 1869 Masters Veg. Terat. 419 Knaurs may occasionally be used for purposes of propagation. 1869 M. T. Masters Veget. Teratol. 158 The huge gnaurs and burrs met with occasionally on some trees often produce great quantities..of roots. 1900 B. D. Jackson Gloss. Bot. Terms, Gnaurs, burrs or knotty excrescences on tree-trunks or roots, probably from clusters of adventitious buds. 1903 F. W. Burbidge Let. to W. T. Thiselton-Dyer 20 June (MS.), I beg to hand you a ‘gnaur’ or swollen, arrested branch of a Tulip tree. |
† 3. A knotted, thick-set fellow. Obs.
| c 1386 Chaucer Prol. 549 He was short scholdred, brood, a thikke knarre [so most MSS.; Lansd. gnarre]. |
Hence knarred (nɑːd) a., knotted, gnarled.
| 1849 Longfellow Building of the Ship 59 The knarred and crooked cedar knees. 1856 Aird Poet. Wks. 19 Gnared with knots and knobs. |