slip-knot
(ˈslɪpnɒt)
Also slip knot.
[f. slip v.1]
a. A knot which may readily be slipped or untied. b. A knot so constructed as to slip along the cord or line round which it is made; a running knot; also, a noose.
| 1659 Torriano, Cáppio, a slipknot that may be untied. 1679 Moxon Mech. Exerc. vii. 126 They..fasten the rest of the Line there, upon the Line Rowl with a Slip-knot, that no more Line turn off. 1710 Managers' Pro & Con 40 They labour to make the Crown hang upon Her Head, only by that Slipknot of Hereditary Right. 1760 Sterne Tr. Shandy iii. x, Knots,—by which..I would not be understood to mean slip-knots. 1827 D. Johnson Ind. Field Sports 55 Elephants..are caught in Nepaul..by phauns (nooses made with slip knots). 1847 W. C. L. Martin The Ox 166/1 By dexterous manipulation, the slip-knot of a cord may be fastened round each leg. 1888 Archæol. Rev. Mar. 25 The youngest of these princesses is caught while bathing, by means of a magical slip-knot. |
| transf. 1842 T. Moore Jrnl. Sept. 14 in Mem. Thomas Moore (1856) VII. 330 Had already formed a sort of slip-knot with Easthope to dine at his country house, but he had luckily put me off till to-morrow. 1863 Cowden Clarke Shaks. Charac. v. 135 A free woman of the world,..retaining her virtue only by a slip-knot. 1888 Harper's Mag. July 320/2 Hasty marriages—slip-knots tied by one justice to be undone by another. |