knab

See also: Knab

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /næb/
• Rhymes: -æb

Etymology 1

See nab, and compare knap.

Verb

knab (third-person singular simple present knabs, present participle knabbing, simple past and past participle knabbed)

1. (colloquial) To nab or steal.
2. (obsolete) To seize with the teeth; to gnaw.
   • 1692, Roger L’Estrange, “ (please specify the fable number.) (please specify the name of the fable.)”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], →OCLC:

     a Mouthful of Fresh Grats to Knab upon

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “knab”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Etymology 2

See nab, knob (in the sense of a rounded hill).

Noun

knab (plural knabs)

1. (chiefly Northumbria, archaic) A hill.
2. (Scotland, Shetland, Orkney) a promontory or headland

Anagrams

• Bank, bank, nabk

Dutch

Etymology

Pertaining to the group of words for thick objects with initial kn- such as knobbel, knoop, knuppel. Cognate with western German Knäppchen (“heel of bread”).

Noun

knab ? (plural knabben, diminutive [please provide])

1. (dialectal, parts of southern and eastern Netherlands) lump, thick piece (e.g. of wood or bread)