gnarled

English

Etymology 1

First attested Shakespeare 1603:[1]

Thy sharpe and sulpherous bolt Splits the vn-wedgable [unwedgable] and gnarled Oke [oak].
Measure for Measure, Act II, scene ii, line 116

Variant of knurled,[2][3] from knurl. Surface analysis is gnarl +‎ -ed, though gnarl is a later back-formation. Popular use by 19th century.[2]

Adjective

gnarled (comparative more gnarled, superlative most gnarled)

  1. Knotty and misshapen.
    • 1914, Louis Joseph Vance, Nobody, chapter I:
      Three chairs of the steamer type, all maimed, comprised the furniture of this roof-garden, with […] on one of the copings a row of four red clay flower-pots filled with sun-baked dust from which gnarled and rusty stalks thrust themselves up like withered elfin limbs.
  2. Made rough by age or hard work.
Synonyms
Derived terms
Translations

Verb

gnarled

  1. simple past tense and past participle of gnarl (Etymology 1)

Etymology 2

See gnarl (Etymology 2).

Verb

gnarled

  1. simple past tense and past participle of gnarl (Etymology 2)

References

  1. ↑ “gnarled” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001–2018.
  2. 1 2 OED
  3. ↑ Barnhart

Anagrams

This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.