knee

Penny was wearing a miniskirt, so she skinned her exposed knees when she fell.

He made him ſtoup perforce vnto his knee, / And doe vnwilling worſhip to the Saint, / That on his ſhield depainted he did ſee[…]

1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto V”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, page 249:

KORRIS: I have tasted your heart. You have been with them, but you are still "of" us. Do not deny the challenge of your destiny. Get off your knees and soar. Open your eyes and let the dream take flight.

1988 March 21, Vaughn Armstrong, Heart of Glory (Star Trek: The Next Generation) (Science Fiction), Paramount Domestic Television, →OCLC:

(anatomy) In humans, the joint or the region of the joint in the middle part of the leg between the thigh and the shank.

In the horse and allied animals, the carpal joint, corresponding to the wrist in humans.

The part of a garment that covers the knee.

Deck beams were supported by hanging knees, triangular pieces of wood typically found underneath the timbers they are designed to support, but in this case found above them.

1980, Richard W. Unger, The Ship in the Medieval Economy 600-1600, page 41:

(shipbuilding) A piece of timber or metal formed with an angle somewhat in the shape of the human knee when bent.

Give them title, knee, and approbation.

c. 1605–1608, William Shakespeare, “The Life of Tymon of Athens”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii], line 36:

[…] and he made a knee to the Caesar of Patna, giving that man all honour due to him.

2009, C. E. Murphy, The Pretender's Crown, page 127:

(archaic) An act of kneeling, especially to show respect or courtesy.

the knee of a graph

Any knee-shaped item or sharp angle in a line; an inflection point.

Tante was groggy but not quite out so Winnie gave him a knee to the jaw that Rose had shown her, and that was enough. He slumped like a rag-doll to the floor.

Coordinate term: lap

The duty is, or should be, a thing taught at one's father's knee, and the structure of the family gently enforces it.

1978, Time, volume 111, numbers 18-26, page 49:

This has significant implications for sacramental theology which it seems Pusey even realised in the way he spoke of his early life and of learning all he knew about the Eucharist and the Catholic faith at his mother's knee, […]

2015, Brian Douglas, The Eucharistic Theology of Edward Bouverie Pusey, page 113:

(figurative) The presence of a parent etc., where a young child acquires early knowledge.

en-noun

knee (plural knees or (obsolete or dialectal) kneen)

knees (plural)
kneen (dialectal obsolete plural)

ашьамхы

joint in the middle of the leg and area around it

etupolvi

carpal joint of a horse or related animal

polvi

shipbuilding: piece of timber or metal formed with an angle

коля́но

any knee-shaped item or sharp angle in a line

From Middle English kne, from Old English cnēow, from Proto-West Germanic *kneu, from Proto-Germanic *knewą, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵnéw-o-m, a thematic derivative of *ǵónu.
See also Low German Knee, Dutch knie, German Knie, Danish knæ, Norwegian kne, Swedish knä; also Hittite 𒄀𒉡 (genu), Latin genū, Tocharian A kanweṃ (dual), Tocharian B kenī, Ancient Greek γόνυ (gónu, “knee”), γωνία (gōnía, “corner, angle”), Welsh glin (“knee”), Old Armenian ծունր (cunr), Avestan 𐬲𐬥𐬎𐬨 (žnum), Sanskrit जानु (jā́nu).
The obsolete plural kneen is from Middle English kneen, knen, kneon, kneuwene.


knee

I could as well be brought / To knee his throne and, squire-like, pension beg / To keep base life afoot

c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]:

When I blocked her from leaving, she kneed me in the groin.

(transitive) To poke or strike with the knee.

Hassan kneed himself up, over, in, soundlessly, feet on floor, knife out, eyes like blunter knife trying to cut darkness.

1959, Anthony Burgess, Beds in the East (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 489:

(reflexive) To move on the knees; to use the knees to move.

en-verb

knee (third-person singular simple present knees, present participle kneeing, simple past and past participle kneed)

knees (present singular third-person)
kneeing (participle present)
kneed (participle past)
kneed (past)