knarry

English

Etymology

From Middle English knarry; equivalent to knar +‎ -y.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈnɑːɹi/

Adjective

knarry (comparative more knarry, superlative most knarry)

1. (obsolete) knotty; gnarled
   • 1684, Tho. Ghyles, Gent., A Brief and Plain Description of the Joynt-Sickness: Also, An Introduction, leading exactly to the Cure of the Gout‎^[1], London, pages 8, 15:

     If the Gout have been of long standing, and hath often afflicted the Sick; then at length there are generated in the Joynts; hard Knots and Knovs; from the more thick part of the Serous or wheyish humours: At first, no bigger than peas, then as big as Small-Nuts; and afterwards much bigger: And then the Patient will have something (Monstrous) to look at: Not as a wonder for Nine Days; But Durante Vitæ; being then call'd the Knarry Gout, and not easily to be Cured.
     I give the Challenge to any Gout, (one or two kinds only excepted, being beyond the reach of man, to Cure; in which Case, ease only is given:) Although stubborn, knarry, or of long standing, being not bound precisely to any set time.

   • 1814, “Rosmer Haf-Mand, or the Mer-Man Rosmer”, in Illustrations of Northern Antiquities,  […], Edinburgh: James Ballantyne and Co., page 404:

     If, at such a time, you were to look through an elf-bore in wood, were a thorter knot (the knarry end of a branch) has been taken out, or through a hold made by an elf-arrow, (which has probably been made by a warble) in the skin of a beast that has been elf-shot, you may see the elf-bull haiging (butting) with the strongest bull or ox in the heard; but you will never see with that eye again.—Many a man has lost his sight in this manner!

   • 1854, Charles Dickens, “The Lady of The Fen”, in Collection of British Authors: Tauchnitz Edition, Vol. 297; Household Words, volume 23, Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, page 262:

     The trees were old, and jagg'd, and dark; / With dying moss and knarry bark; / Above, the branches and lighter spray / Like a low and black cloud lay.

Related terms

• knar

Middle English

Adjective

knarry

1. knotty; gnarly
   • 1387–1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Knyghtes Tale”, in The Canterbury Tales, [Westminster: William Caxton, published 1478], →OCLC; republished in [William Thynne], editor, The Workes of Geffray Chaucer Newlye Printed, […], [London]: […] [Richard Grafton for] Iohn Reynes […], 1542, →OCLC, lines 1117-20:

     First, on the wal was peynted a forest,
     In which ther dwelleth neither man nor best,
     With knotty, knarry, bareyne trees olde
     Of stubbes sharpe and hidouse to biholde

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)