▪ I. knack, n.1
(næk)
Forms: 4–6 knak, 6–7 knacke, 7– knack.
[ME. knak: in senses 1 and 2 = Du. knak, G. (orig. LG.) knack, knacke (also gnacke), knacks, Norw. knak; also Gael. cnac (? from Sc.). Of echoic origin: cf. the associated knack v.]
† 1. A sharp sounding blow, stroke, or rap. Cf. knap n.2 1. Obs. rare.
| c 1380 Sir Ferumb. 4599 Charlis lokedem be-hynde ys bak, and saw dele þar many a knak, & myche noyse make. |
2. A sharp sound or noise such as is made in striking a stone with a hammer; a crack or snap.
| 1565–73 Cooper Thesaurus, Concrepare digitis,..to make a fillip or knack with the fingers. 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1658) 331 [Which] made the bone to return into his right place, with such a loud knack or crack, as it might be heard a great way off. 1609 B. Jonson Sil. Wom. i. ii, The fellow trims him silently, and has not the knacke with his sheeres, or his fingers. 1831 J. Holland Manuf. Metal I. 214 The knack of the fly [used by nail-cutters]..nearly equals in the rapidity of its repetition the ticking of a watch. |
† 3. A taunt, gibe, sharp repartee. Sc. Obs.
| 1513 Douglas æneis Dyrectioun 21 Perpetualy bechydit with ilk knak. 1560 Rolland Crt. Venus iv. 386 Pointand thair hand with mony scorne & knak [S.T.S. ed. prints knax]. a 1568 in Bannatyne MS. 321/18 Than will thay mak at him a knak. |
▪ II. knack, n.2
(næk)
Forms: 4–6 knak, knakke (pl. knakkes, 5 knax), 5–7 knacke, 6– knack, (4 gnack(e, 6 neck, 9 nack).
[Origin obscure: in age and forms agreeing with knack n.1, and possibly the same word; but the connexion of sense is not clear.]
1. A trick; a device, artifice; formerly often, a deceitful or crafty device, a mean or underhand trick; later esp. an adroit or ingenious method of doing something, a clever expedient, a ‘dodge’.
| c 1369 Chaucer Dethe Blaunche 1033 She ne used no suche knakkes smale. c 1380 Wyclif Wks. (1880) 184 Coueitous laweieris wiþ here gnackis & iapis. a 1420 Hoccleve De Reg. Princ. 1395 Al þis..Is but a iape, who seith, or a knak. c 1470 Henryson Mor. Fab. v. (Parl. Beasts) xxx, ‘Let be, lowrence’, quod scho, ‘your courtlie knax’. c 1540 Earl of Surrey Poems (1854) 68, I have found a neck To keep my men in guard. 1548 Udall Erasm. Par. Luke Pref. 13 Swete pleasaunte knackes and conceiptes. 1568 Jacob & Esau ii. ii. in Hazl. Dodsley II. 214 That ever son of thine should play such a lewd knack! 1584 R. Scot Discov. Witchcr. xii. xviii. (1886) 225 A knacke to knowe whether you be bewitched or no. 1660 Dial. Tom & Dick 1 If George does not do the knack, Ne're trust good-fellow more. a 1677 Barrow Serm. Wks. 1716 I. 174 Slander seemeth..a fine knack, or curious feat of policy. 1735 Pope Ep. Lady 155 How should equal Colours do the knack? 1829 Carlyle Misc., Germ. Playwrights (1872) II. 91 He has some knack, or trick of the trade. |
2. The ‘trick’ of dexterous performance; an acquired faculty of doing something cleverly, adroitly, and successfully. (Now the leading sense.)
| 1581 Mulcaster Positions v. (1887) 34 They that haue any naturall towardnesse to write well, haue a knacke of drawing to. a 1661 Fuller Worthies (1840) III. 287 Our Holland had the true knack of translating. 1710 Shaftesbury Charac. (1737) II. i. i. 189 A violent Desire..to know the Knack or Secret by which Nature does all. 1713 Steele Guard. No. 10 ¶6 He who hath no knack at writing sonnets. 1824 W. Irving T. Trav. I. 54 He always had a knack of making himself understood among the women. 1834 Beckford Italy II. xv. 83 Sister Theresa has an admirable knack for teaching arithmetic. 1845 Ford Handbk. Spain i. 68 Most Spaniards have a peculiar knack in making omelettes. 1851 D. Jerrold St. Giles v. 48 You think the knack to do this does you good. 1870 Emerson Soc. & Solit., Work & Days Wks. (Bohn) III. 68 Look up the inventors. Each has his own knack. |
b. A ‘trick’ of action, speech, etc.; a personal habit of acting or speaking in a particular way.
| 1674 N. Fairfax Bulk & Selv. To Rdr., If the knack of borrowing, or robbing and pilfering rather, gets but a little further ground amongst us,..it will..be harder for an English-man to speak his own tongue without mingling others with it, than to speak a medly of sundry others with⁓out bringing in his own. 1709 Steele Tatler No. 31 ¶9 The Lady..has only, with a very brisk Air, a Knack of saying the commonest Things. 1741 Richardson Pamela (1824) I. 160, I have got such a knack of writing, that when I am by myself, I cannot sit without a pen in my hand. 1861 M. E. Braddon Trail Serpent i. v, The Sloshy has quite a knack of swelling and bursting. |
3. concr. An ingenious contrivance; a toy, trinket, trifle, knick-knack. ? Obs.
| 1540 Heywood Four P.P. in Hazl. Dodsley I. 349 Needles, thread, thimble, shears, and all such knacks. 1596 Shakes. Tam. Shr. iv. iii. 67 Why 'tis a cockle or a walnut-shell, A knacke, a toy, a tricke, a babies cap: Away with it. a 1677 Barrow Serm. (1683) II. vii. 104 Springs, and wheels, and such mechanick knacks. 1715 tr. C'tess D'Aunoy's Wks. 557 A Thousand pretty Knacks..which she made with Fish-Bones and Shells, with Reeds and Rushes. 1825 Lamb Elia Ser. ii. Superannuated Man, All the glittering and endless succession of knacks and gew⁓gaws. 1863 Cowden Clarke Shaks. Char. xiv. 360 The pedlar's knacks and gaudy trash [Wint. T. iv. iv.] absorb Mopsa's whole gloating vision. |
† b. A choice dish; a delicacy, a dainty. Obs.
| 1548 Udall, etc. Erasm. Par. Mark viii. 56 The knackes and junckettes of the Rhetoricians, the royall dishes of the Philosophers. 1592 Greene Disc. Coosnage iii. 10 Hee wanted no ordinarie good fare, wine and other knackes. 1616 Surfl. & Markh. Country Farme 574 The flower of meale,..whereof the pasterers..doe make wafers, and such like daintie knackes. 1642 Milton Apol. Smect. i. Wks. (1851) 283 (tr. Horace Sat. i. i. 24) As some teachers give to Boyes Junkets and Knacks, that they may learne apace. |
† c. An ingeniously contrived literary composition; a quaint device or conceit in writing. Obs.
| 1605 Camden Rem., Rythmes 26 Our Poets hath their knacks..as Ecchos, Achrostiches, Serpentine verses [etc.]. 1641 Denham Petit. to Five Members 41 All those pretty knacks you compose—Alas! what are they but poems in prose? 1644 Bulwer Chiron. 98 Ovid that grand Master of love knacks. 1660 H. More Myst. Godl. x. xiii. 532 You..reproach them..that they have not taken up your Allegorical knacks. |
4. local. = kirn-baby. See also neck2.
| 1813 Ellis Brand's Pop. Antiq. I. 433 note, At Werington, in Devonshire,..when a farmer finishes his reaping, a small quantity of the ears of the last corn are twisted or tied together into a curious kind of figure,..which is called ‘a knack’. |
5. attrib. and Comb., as knack-maker, knack-shop; † knack-hardy a., bold in the use of trickery.
| 1549 Coverdale, etc. Erasm. Par. 2 Pet. 18 They..contemne those that be set in public authoritie, being knacke hardie and shameless. 1607 Topsell Serpents (1658) 783 Not one dare be so knack-hardy as to break into their friends and fellowes fence and enclosure. 1649 Mercurius Aulicus in Thomasson Tracts (B.M.) Vol. 438 No. 2. 14 Resolved by the supreme knack-makers that a knack be brought in for settling the college of Westminster. a 1700 B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Knacks, or Toies, a Knack-shop, or Toy-shop. |
▪ III. knack, v.
(næk)
Also 4–7 knacke, 5–6 knak.
[In senses 2 and 3 = Du. knakken (first in Kilian), MHG. knacken (also gnacken), MLG. knaken (hence prob. Sw. knaka, Da. knage); cf. also Sw. knäcka, Da. knække, Norw. knekkja, to break, snap. Of echoic origin: cf. clack, crack.]
† 1. intr. To deal (sharp sounding) blows. Obs. Cf. knack n.1 1.
| 1575 R. B. Appius & Virg. in Hazl. Dodsley IV. 121 Nay then, by the mass, it's time to be knacking. |
2. trans. To strike (things or their parts) together so as to produce a sharp abrupt noise; to gnash (the teeth); to snap (the fingers). Now dial.
| c 1489 Caxton Sonnes of Aymon xix. 406 He knacked his teeth for angre. 1577 H. Rhodes Bk. Nurture in Babees Bk. 79 Cast not thy bones vnder the Table, nor none see thou doe knack. 1611 Cotgr., Matassiner des mains, to moue, knacke, or waggle the fingers, like a Iugler. 1735 E. Chicken Collier's Wedd. (Northumbld. Gloss.), The pipes scream out her fav'rite jig, She knack'd her thumbs and stood her trig. |
† b. To break or crack with a sharp sound. [Cf. Swed. knacke-brod, a sort of biscuit or cracknel.]
| 1562 J. Heywood Prov. (1867) 66 Knak me that nut. 1573–80 Baret Alv. K 85 To knacke, or breake a nut. |
3. intr. To make a sharp abrupt noise, as when stones are struck together. Now dial.
| 1603 Holland Plutarch's Mor. 1276 Knacking (as it were) with his fingers over his head. 1617 Bp. Hall Quo Vadis? §20 If they can heare their beads knacke vpon each other. 1646 Fuller Wounded Consc. (1841) 282 Sheep..fly without cause, scared (as some say) with the sound of their own feet: their feet knack because they fly, and they fly because their feet knack. 18.. Colliers' Pay Week in Brockett N.C. Gloss., He jumps, and his heels knack and rattle. |
† 4. trans. To ‘break’ (notes: see break v. 2 h, note n.); to sing with trills or runs; to sing in a lively or ornate manner, to trill forth. Obs.
| c 1380 Wyclif Wks. (1880) 192 Þre or foure proude & lecherous lorellis schullen knacke þe most deuout seruyce þat noman schal here þe sentence..& þanne strumpatis & þeuys preisen sire iacke or hobbe,..how smale þei knacken here notis. c 1388 in Wyclif's Sel. Wks. III. 482 God seis not þat he is blessid þat syngus or knackus swete notis. c 1460 Towneley Myst. xiii. 659 For to sing vs emong right as he knakt it, I can. |
† b. intr. To sing or speak in a lively manner; to ‘descant’. Obs.
| a 1529 Skelton Agst. Comely Coystrowne Wks. 1843 I. 15 Curyowsly he can both counter and knak of Martyn Swart and all hys mery men. |
c. intr. To talk finely or mincingly. dial.
| 1674–91 Ray N.C. Words, Knack, to speak finely. And it is used of such as do speak in the Southern dialect. 1825 Brockett, Knack, to speak affectedly, to ape a style beyond the speaker's education. 1855 Robinson Whitby Gloss. s.v., She knacks and knappers like a London miss. |
† 5. trans. To mock, taunt. Obs. (chiefly Sc.).
| c 1425 Wyntoun Cron. viii. x. 1728 This Kyng Edward all wyth gawdys Knakkyd Robert the Brws wyth frawdis. a 1500 Ratis Raving ii. 371 Thai wyll men..scorn & knak. 1513 Douglas æneis ii. iii. [ii.] 13 A multitude ȝong Troianis Byssy to knak and pull the presoneir. |