knobbly

adjectiveC1Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speechneutral

Knobbly means covered in small hard lumps. Knobbly knees, a knobbly stick, knobbly potatoes.

It is affectionate rather than critical, which is why knobbly knees is a joke rather than an insult. Americans spell it knobby and use it the same way.

Definitions of knobbly

1adjectiveknobblyCovered in small hard lumps.C1
“He walked with a knobbly stick cut from the hedge.”

knobbly is a texture.

Where it comes from

From knobble + -y.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Texture & Touch

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knobbly in the wild

Twiglets are a wheat-based snack marketed in the United Kingdom that have a "distinctive knobbly shape" similar to that of twigs and a speckled-brown-over-pale-colour appearance.
Twiglets
The pisiform bone ( or ), also spelled pisiforme (from the Latin pisiformis, pea-shaped), is a small knobbly, sesamoid bone that is found in the wrist.
Pisiform bone
The common name comes from the organism's appearance - that of a knobbly 'bulb' or flower attached to a long stalk.
Pyura spinifera
The fell's name originates from the Old English "Rigg", meaning a bumpy or knobbly ridge.
Great Rigg
The potatoes are deep-eyed and round with dark red skin and white waxy flesh, though can be knobbly if soil moisture is uneven.
Red Pontiac

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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