Forms: 5 knage, 5–7 knagge, 5, 9 knagg, 6– knag. [ME. knag or knagge = G. (orig. LG.) knagge knot, peg, etc., whence prob. Da. knag, Sw. knagg: Gael. cnag may be from Sc. KNAG v. and KNAGGED, regarded as derivatives of this word, are evidenced before it.]
1. A short spur or stiff projection from the trunk or branch of a tree, as the stunted dead branch of a pine or fir; hence, a peg or hook for hanging anything on.
c. 1440. Syr Gowghter, 194, in Utterson, Early Poetry, I. 169. He made prestes and clerkes to lepe on cragges, Monkes and freres to hong on knagges.
c. 1440. Bone Flor., 1795. Take here the golde in a bagg, I schall hyt hynge on a knagg, At the schypp borde ende.
1483. Cath. Angl., 204/2. A knage.
1535. Lyndesay, Satyre, 3090 (Bannatyne MS.). It will hurt bettir,… Richt now, quhen ye hing on a knag.
1662. in Pitcairn, Crim. Trials, III. 605. It wes hung wp wpon an knag.
18[?]. Hogg, Tales & Sk. (1838), III. 250. Where is my cloak?… It is hanging on one of the wooden knags in the garret.
† 2. One of the knobs or points of a stag’s horn; a tine. Obs.
1578. Banister, Hist. Man, I. 3. Sharpe but not so slender, as the knagge of a hartes horne.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 324. The ashes of Harts horn serueth … the very tip and points of the knags are thought more effectuall. Ibid. (1603), Plutarch’s Mor., 1276. Woonderfull hornes for bignesse, and most dangerous by reason of their sharpe and branching knagges.
1657. W. Coles, Adam in Eden, ccxxxviii. [Leaves] gashed in on both sides into three or four gashes, and pointed at the ends, resembling the Knaggs of a Bucks-horne.
3. A knot in wood, the base of a branch.
1555. W. Watreman, Fardle Facions, I. iii. 37. Trees … of a wondrefull heigth, smothe, and without knagge or knotte.
1639. T. de Grey, Compl. Horsem., 41. If the staffe have knags or knots upon it.
1706. Phillips, Knag, a Knot in Wood.
1852. Seidel, Organ, 44. The knots and knags in the wood are glued over with leather.
4. A pointed rock or crag.
1552. Huloet, Knagge, scopulus.
1825. Brockett, Knaggs, pointed rocks, or rugged tops of hills.
