[f. KNEE sb. + CAP.]

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  1.  A cap or protective covering for the knee; spec., a genouillère.

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1660.  Survey Arm. Tower Lond., in Archæologia, XI. 98. Cushes, Knee capps.

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1827.  Scott, Jrnl., 23 Jan. I have got a piece of armour, a knee-cap of chamois leather.

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1858.  Simmonds, Dict. Trade, Knee-cap, a cover or protection for the knee of a stumbling horse.

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1860.  Fairholt, Costume Eng. (ed. 2), 128. Small plates of metal also begin to appear at the elbows and knees…. The knee-caps were styled genouillères.

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1884.  Mil. Engineering (ed. 3), I. II. 72. 4 pairs of knee-caps.

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1886.  T. Hardy, Mayor Casterbr., iv. Thatcher’s knee-caps, ploughman’s leggings.

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  b.  (Surgical.) A water- or ice-bag for topical appliances to the knee.

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1884.  in Knight, Dict. Mech., Suppl.

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  2.  The convex bone in front of the knee-joint; the patella, knee-pan.

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1869.  Huxley, Elem. Physiol. (ed. 3), 186. The ligament of the knee-cap, or patella.

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1884.  Bosanquet, trans. Lotze’s Metaph., 506. If we touch any part of the skin that is stretched above a bone, whether it be the forehead, the knee-cap, or the heel, feelings are … aroused which have a common tone.

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