knur, knurr
(nɜː(r))
Also 5– knor, 5–6 knorre, 6 knour, 6–7 knurre, 7–9 (dial.) knorr, 9 nurr.
[ME. knorre, knurre, corresp. to MDu., MLG., MHG. knorre (Du. knor, G. knorre(n), Sw. dial. knurr, knurra hard swelling, knot, knob; ulterior etym. uncertain. The ME. word may be older than the quotations show: cf. the related knurned.]
† 1. A hard excrescence, swelling, or concretion in the flesh. Obs. Cf. knob n. 1 b.
| c 1400 Beryn 2513 Strecching forth his fyngirs,..With⁓outen knot or knor or eny signe of goute. 1547 Boorde Brev. Health (1575) cix, Knottes, knobbes, knorres, or burres, the which is in man's flesh or fatnesse. 1621 Molle Camerar. Liv. Libr. i. v. 11 Hard knurs or knobs in his hands with working in the fields. |
2. A knot or hardened excrescence on the trunk of a tree, a knar; a hard concretion or kernel in stone; any swollen formation, a bur.
| 1545 Elyot Dict., Bruscum, a bunche or knur in a tree. 1548 Cooper, Centrum,..an hard knotte or knurre in tymbre [1565–73 adds or stone]. 1563–87 Foxe A. & M. (1596) 1429/2 The euil tree of our harte,..with al the crooks, knots and knoures. 1601 Holland Pliny I. 467 The bunch or knurre in the Maple, called Bruscum, is passing faire. 1664 Evelyn Sylva (1679) 28 Oaks bear also a knur, full of cottony matter. 1725 Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v. Seminary, If you raise your Trees of such sorts as bear a Knur or Burry Swelling, set that part into the Ground. 1853 G. Johnston Nat. Hist. E. Bord. I. 143 The knots or knurs on the stem are in repute for making snuff boxes. 1861 C. A. Johns Forest Trees Gt. Brit. 150 We may often see, on the bole of a beech, scattered excrescences called knurs, varying in size from a pea to a large marble. |
3. A wooden ball or a hard knot of wood used in the north country game of knur and spell or spell and knur, resembling ‘bat and trap’, or trap-ball. Also, A similar ball used in other games, as hockey.
| 1852 Househ. Words 23 Oct. 139 The mysterious game of Nurr and spell. 1855 Robinson Whitby Gloss., Knor or Gnar, a small ball of lignum vitæ for playing at cricket with, or a similar game which is called ‘Spell and Knor’. 1868 Morning Star 10 Feb., A well-known Yorkshire game known as ‘knurr and spell’, in which an ordinary stick some two feet in length has a solid piece of wood 3 in. long and 2 in. in depth screwed on for the purpose of striking a marble. 1872 Prior Croquet 15 Bandy is the same game as hockey, and is played..with a wooden ball that..is cut from a blackthorn bush and called a ‘knurr’. 1877 N.W. Linc. Gloss., Knur, a hard wooden ball with which children play. Ibid., Nur, a small ball, such as that used in the game of hockey. 1967 Antique Finder Aug. 11/3 Knur and Spell. This Georgian tavern game must really be a forerunner of darts. 1972 Daily Tel. (Colour Suppl.) 14 Jan. 22/3 In fact Knur and Spell is simply a formalisation of something that every male person in the world must have done at some time throwing a ball or stone in the air and giving it a tremendous clout with a stick. How maddening when you miss! What a marvellous eye you feel you have when you do it fair and square! The Spell is the device that throws the ball (the Knur) into the air. It is an iron contraption that lies on the ground looking a bit like a rat trap; the framework holds a flat horizontal spring, held down by a catch. On the releasable end of the spring is a little cup containing the knur, a tiny white ball (porcelain, of all things), one inch across and weighing half an ounce. You stand about four feet away from the spell, armed with a ‘stick’, rather like a billiard cue with a hammer head (called the ‘pommel’). You tap the catch on the spell, the knur jumps up about four feet; the object is to hit it farther, over a fixed number of goes, than anyone else. |
4. north. dial. = knurl 2. (See quots.)
| 1691 Ray N.C. Words 135 A Knor or Knurre, a short stubbed dwarfish Man. 1869 Lonsdale Gloss., Knorr, a dwarfish fellow, a hard fellow. |