knotty, a.
(ˈnɒtɪ)
[f. knot n.1 + -y.]
1. Of a cord, etc.: Having or full of knots; tied or entangled in knots.
| a 1240 Wohunge in Cott. Hom. 281 Þu wes..wið cnotti swepes swungen. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 280/2 Knotty, nodosus. 1576 Gascoigne Philomene 112 She bare a skourge, with many a knottie string. 1602 Shakes. Ham. i. v. 18 Make..Thy knotty [Qo. knotted] and combined locks to part, And each particular haire to stand an end. 1634 Sir T. Herbert Trav. 14 Their haire curld,..blacke and knotty. 1852 R. S. Surtees Sponge's Sp. Tour (1893) 310 Regardless of..the crack of his little knotty whip. |
2. fig. Full of intellectual difficulties or complications of thought; hard to ‘unravel’, explain, or solve; involved, intricate, perplexing, puzzling. (Sometimes with mixture of sense 4.)
| a 1225 Leg. Kath. 1157 Ich habbe uncnut summe of þeos cnotti cnotten. 1573–80 Baret Alv. K 122 Knottie, full of knots, or difficulties. 1625 Bacon Ess., Regim. Health (Arb.) 59 Auoid..Anger fretting inwards; Subtill and knottie Inquisitions. 1638 Penit. Conf. vii. (1657) 192 Reckoned amongst the knotty pieces of Christian Religion. 1701 Stanley's Hist. Philos. Biog. 14 æschylus, the most knotty and intricate of all the Greek Poets. 1702 Pope Jan. & May 140 The knotty point was urg'd on either side. 1874 Carpenter Ment. Phys. i. ii. §79 (1879) 83 The man who is..in a complete reverie, unravelling some knotty subject. |
3. Abounding in or covered with knots, knobs, or rough protuberances; rugged, gnarled; containing knots, as a board.
| c 1386 Chaucer Knt.'s T. 1119 A forest,..With knotty knarry bareyne trees olde. c 1420 Pallad. on Husb. iii. 377 Ffertile, & fressh, ek knotty, sprongen newe Thy graffes be. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 280/2 Knotty, wythe-in the flesche, glandulosus. 1594 Blundevil Exerc. iii. i. viii. (1636) 287 Like knots in a knotty board. 1692 Bentley 8 Serm. (1724) 331 The scragged and knotty Backbone. 1762 R. Guy Pract. Obs. Cancers 75 A Cancer in her Breast, rough on the Surface, with knotty Vessels. 1821 Clare Vill. Minstr. I. 122 The wild shelter of a knotty oak. 1881 C. M. Yonge Lads & Lasses Langley ii. 97 She knelt upon the grass, with her bare hard-working knotty hands clasped. |
4. Hard and rough in character; rugged.
| a 1568 R. Ascham Scholem. i. (Arb.) 34 A witte..that is not ouer dulle, heauie, knottie and lumpishe. 1643 Milton Divorce Pref., Wks. (1851) 19 To doe this..with a smooth and pleasing lesson, which receiv'd hath the vertue to soften and dispell rooted and knotty sorrowes. 1663 J. Spencer Prodigies (1665) 341 A kind of blunter wedges provided by divine Wisdom to work upon those knotty tempers, upon which those instruments of a finer edg..can do no good. 1821 Lamb Elia Ser. i. Imperf. Symp., They beat up a little game peradventure—and leave it to knottier heads..to run it down. |
5. Comb., as knotty-pated adj. [perh. associated with not-headed, not-pated (1 Hen. IV, ii. iv. 78)], blockheaded.
| 1596 Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, ii. iv. 251 Thou Clay-brayn'd Guts, thou Knotty-pated Foole. |