knobby

UK/ˈnɒbi/US/ˈnɑbi/

adjectiveC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #14,199 of 15,258neutral

Knobby means covered with small hard lumps. Knobby knees, a knobby stick, knobby roots.

It is chiefly American; British English says knobbly, with the extra syllable. It usually describes joints, wood and roots, and it is affectionate more often than critical. The k at the front is silent, as in knee and knock.

Definitions of knobby

1adjectiveknobbyCovered with small hard lumps.C1
“The old man leaned on a knobby wooden walking stick.”

knobby is a quality of surface.

Also accepted in games: knobbly

Where it comes from

From knob + -y.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire

Practise this word

knobby in the wild

Argonauta nodosus, also known as the knobby or knobbed argonaut, is a species of pelagic octopus.
Argonauta nodosa
Pot of Gold is the nickname for a knobby, softball-sized rock in Gusev Crater on Mars.
Pot of Gold (Mars)
Hainan knobby newts live under dead leaves or root holes in heavily shaded forest in the mountains.
Hainan knobby newt
The knobby seahorse (Hippocampus breviceps), also known as the short-headed seahorse or short-snouted seahorse, is a species of marine fish of the family Syngnathidae.
Knobby seahorse
Tartarus Colles are a group of knobby hills in the northern plains of Mars.
Tartarus Colles

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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