1. The joint of the knee.
1648. Wilkins, Math. Magick, I. v. 36. The weight of the body doth bear most upon the knee-joints.
1831. Youatt, Horse (1848), 337. Many horses are sadly blemished … by wounds in the knee-joint.
1876. Clin. Soc. Trans., IX. 176. I ordered … an evaporating lotion to be kept applied to the knee-joint.
1891. W. H. Flower, Horse, 148.
2. Mech. A joint formed of two pieces hinged together endwise so as to resemble a knee, a toggle-joint. † Formerly applied to a ball-and-socket joint. Also attrib., as knee-joint press.
1712. J. James, trans. Le Blond’s Gardening, 81. The Semi-circle is mounted upon a Knee-Joint, or Ball, for the Conveniency of turning it every way.
1851. Illustr. Catal. Gt. Exhib., 287. The introduction of the knee-joint gives to the dies a variable motion, and causes the greatest force … at the closing of the joint.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., Knee-joint Press, one in which power is applied by means of a double knee-joint articulated at the top to the upright framework, and at the bottom to a cross-head, from which proceeds the shaft which applies the force.
So Knee-jointed a., geniculate: cf. KNEED 1 b.
1776–96. Withering, Brit. Plants (ed. 3), II. 120. Alopecurus geniculatus, spiked straw knee-jointed. Ibid., 454. Geum … Seeds many, with a knee-jointed awn.
1855. Loudon’s Encycl. Plants, Gloss. 1101. Kneed or knee-jointed, bent like the knee-joint.
