Volume 1

A dictionary of the English language: in which the words are deduced from their originals, and illustrated in their different significations by examples from the best writers. To which are prefixed, a history of the language, and an English grammar / by Samuel Johnson.

  • Samuel Johnson
Date:
1755
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A dictionary of the English language: in which the words are deduced from their originals, and illustrated in their different significations by examples from the best writers. To which are prefixed, a history of the language, and an English grammar / by Samuel Johnson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    KNO ’Tis the fport of flatefmen, When heroes knock their knotty heads together, And fall by one another. Rowe. 3. To Knock down. To fell by a blow. He began to knock down his fellow citizens with a great deal of zeal, and to fill all Arabia with an unnatural medley of religion and bloodfhed. Addifon's Freeholder, N°. 50. A man who is grofs in a woman’s company, ought to be knocked down w'ith a club. Clarijfa. 4. To Knock on the head. To kill by a blow ; to deftroy. He betook himfelf to his orchard, and walking there was knocked on the head by a tree. South's Sermons. Excefs, either with an apoplexy, knocks a man on the head-, or with a fever, like fire in a ftrong-water-fhop, burns him down to the ground. Grew's Cofmol. Knock, n.f [from the verb.] 1. A fudden ftroke ; a blow. Some men never conceive how the motion of tie earth fhould wave him from a knock perpendicularly directed from a body in the air above. Brown's VAgar Err. b. vii. Ajax belabours there an harmlefs ox, And thinks that Agamemnon feels the knocks. Dryden. 2. A loud ftroke at a door for admiffion. Guifcard, in his leathern frock, Stood ready, with his thrice-repeated knock : Thrice with a doleful found the jarring grate Rung deaf and hollow. Dryden's Boccacc. Kno'cker. n.f. [from knock.’] 1. He that knocks. 2. The hammer which hangs at the door for ftrangers to ftrilce. Shut, fhut the door, good John ! fatigu’d, I faid. Tie up the knocker, fay I’m fick. I’m dead. Pope. To Knoll, v. a. [from knell.] To ring the bell, generally for a funeral. Had I as many fens as I have hairs, I would not wifh them to a fairer death. And fo his knell is knoli'd. Shakefpcare's Macbeth. To Knoll, v. n. To found as a bell. If ever you have look’d on better days, If ever been where bells have knoli'd to church. Shakcfp. Knoll, n.f. A little hill. Ainf. Knop. n.f. [A corruption of knap.] Any tufty top.' Ainf Knot, n.f [cnorca, Saxon; knot, German; knutte, Dutch; knotte, Erfe.] 1. A complication of a cord or firing not eafily to be difen- tangled. He found that reafon’s felf ’now reafons found To fallen knots, which fancy firft had bound. Sidney. As the fair veflal to the fountain came, Let none be ftartled at a veftal’s name, Tir’d with the walk, fhe laid her down to reft; And to the winds expos’d her glowing breaft. To take the frefhnefs of the morning air. And o-ather’d in a knot her flowing hair. Addifon. 2. Any figure of which the lines frequently interfedl each other. Garden knots, the frets of houfes, and all equal figures, pleafe ; whereas unequal figures are but deformities. Bacon. Our fea-wall’d garden, the whole land, Is full of wreeds, her faireft flowers choked up. Her knots diforder’d. Shakefp. Rich. II. It fed flow’rs worthy of paradife, which not nice art In beds and curious knots, but nature boon, Pour’d forth profufe on hill and dale, and plain. Milton. Their quarters are contrived into elegant knots, adorned with the moft beautiful flowers. More. Henry in knots involving Emma’s name, Had half-exprefs’d, and half-conceal’d his flame Upon this tree ; and as the tender mark Grew with the year, and widen’d with the bark, Venus had heard the virgin’s foft addrefs. That, as the wound, the paffion might increafe. Prior. 3. Any bond of aflbeiation or union. Confirm that amity With nuptial knot, if thou vouchiafe to grant That virtuous lady Bona. Shakefp. Henry VI. Richmond aims At young Elizabeth, my brother’s daughter. And by that knot looks proudly on the crown. Shakefp. I would he had continued to his country As he began, and not unknit himfelf The noble knot he made. Shakcfpeare's Coriolanus. Why left you wife and children, Thofe precious motives, thofe ftrong knots of love. Shak. Not all that Saul could threaten or perfuade. In this clofe knot, the finalleft loofenefs made. Cowley. 4. A hard part in a piece of wood caufed by the protuberance of a bough, and confequently by a tranfverfe direction ot the fibres. A joint in an herb. Taking the very refufe among thofe which ferved to no life, being a crooked pilfcce of wood, and full of knots, he hath carved it diligently, when he had nothing elfe to do. Wifd. Such knots and crofliiefs of grain is objeded here, as will K N O hardly fuffer that form, which they cry up here as the only juft reformation, to go on fo fmoothly here as it might do in Scotland. ' King Charles. 5. A confederacy ; an aflbeiation ; a fmall band. Oh you panderly rafealsj there’s a knot, a gang, a confpi- racy again ft me. Shakef. Merry Wives of Windfor. What is there here in Rome that can delight thee? Where not a foul, without thine own foul knot, But fears and hates thee. Ben. Johnfons Catiline. A knot of good fellows borrowed a fum of money of a gentleman upon the king’s highway. L' Ejhange. I am now with a knot of his admirers, who make requeft that you would give notice of the window where the knight intends to appear. Addifon's Spectator. 6. Difficulty; intricacy. A man fhall be perplexed with knots and problems of bufi- nefs, and contrary affairs, where the determination is dubious, and both parts of the contrariety feem equally weighty; fo that, which way foever the choice determines, a man is fure to venture a great concern. South’s Sermons, j. Any intrigue, or difficult perplexity of affairs. When the difeovery was made that the king was living, which was the knot of the play untied, the reft is fhut up in thecompafs of fome few lines, becaufe nothing then hindered the happinefs of Torifmond and Leonora. Dryden's Dufrefn. 8. A duller ; a collection. The way of fortune is like the milky way in the fky, which is a meeting or knot of a number of fmall ftars, not feen afunder, but giving light together. Bacon’s Ejfays. In a piClure, befides the principal figures which compofe it, and aie placed in the midft of it, there are lefs groups or knots of figures difpofed at proper diftances, which are part3 of the piece, and feem to carry on the fame defign in a more inferior manner. Dryden's Dufrefnoy. To Knot. v. a. [from the noun.] 1. To complicate in knots. Happy we who from fuch queens are freed. That were always telling beads : But here’s a queen when fhe rides abroad Is always knotting threads. Sidley. 2. To intangle; to perplex. 3. To unite. The party of the papifts in England are become more knotted, both in dependence towards Spain, and amongftthem- fe]ves> Bacon's War with Spain. To Knot. v. n. 1. To form buds, knots, or joints in vegetation. Cut hay when it begins to knot. Mortimer s Hufbandry, 2. To knit knots for fringes. Kno'tberrybush. n.f. A plant. Ainf. Kno'tgrass. n.f. {knot and grafs.] A plant. Kno'tted. adj. [from knot.] Full of knots. The knotted oaks fhall fhow’rs of honey weep. Dryden. Kno'ttiness. n.f. [from knotty.] Fulnefs of knots; uneven- nefs ; intricacy; difficulty. Virtue was reprefented by Hercules naked, with his lion s fkin and knotted -club: by his oaken club is fignified reafon ruling the appetite; the knottinefs thereof, the difficulty they have that feek after virtue. Peacham on Drawing. KnoTty. adj. [from knot.] 1. Full of knots. I have feen tempefts, when the fcolding winds Have riv’d the knotty oaks* Shakefp. Julius Ccefar. The timber in fome trees more clean, in fome more knotty : try it by fpeaking at one end, and laying the ear at the other , for if it be knotty, the voice will not pafs well. Bacon. The knotty oaks their lift’ning branches bow. Rofcommon. One with a brand yet burning from the flame, ^ Arm’d with a knotty club another came. Dryden s JEn. Where the vales with violets once were crown’d. Now knotty burrs and thorns difgrace the ground . Come, fhepherds, come, and ftrew with leaves the plain; Such funeral rites yourDaphnis did ordain. Dryden. 2. Hard; rugged. Valiant fools Were made by nature for the wife to work with: They are their tools; and ’tis the fport of flatefmen, When heroes knock their knotty heads together. And fall by one another. Rowe’s Ambitious Stepmother. 3. Intricate; perplexed; difficult; embaraffed. ^ King Henry, in the very entrance of his reign, when the kingdom was caft in his arms, met with a point of great dif¬ ficulty, and knotty to folve, able to trouble and con oun te . wifeft kings. Barn's HmryVII. Princes exercifed ikill in putting intricate queftions; and he that was the beft at the untying of knotty difficulties, carried the prize. . L'tjlrange. Some on the bench the knotty laws untie. Dryden. They compliment, they fit, they chat, Fight o’er the wars, reform the flate ; A thoufand knotty points they clear, . ''Fill fupper and my wife appear.