Forms: 1 cneowian, 2 knewien, 3 kno(u)wien; 6– knee. [In sense 1, OE. cnéowian, f. cnéow, KNEE sb. Cf. OHG. chniuwen, knewen, MHG. kniuwen, kniewen, knien, Ger. knien. But the orig. verb does not appear after 13th c.; the existing vb. being a new formation of 16th c. from KNEE sb.]
1. intr. To go down on, or bend, the knee or knees; to kneel or bow, esp. in token of reverence or submission. Const. to (a person), whence indirect passive to be kneed to.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Hom., II. 154. Benedictus … mid wope on his ʓebedum cneowode.
c. 1175. Lamb. Hom., 121. Þet folc … knewede to-foren him on bismer.
c. 1250. Passion our Lord, 387, in O. E. Misc., 48. Seþþe hi knowede and seyde, hayl gywene king.
1577. trans. Bullinger’s Decades (1592), 122. To bowe downe is to cap and to knee, to ducke with the heade.
1612. W. Parkes, Curtaine-Dr. (1876), 42. The Lawyer whilst he liues may … be capt and kneed to like a Prince.
b. trans. with complement or cognate obj.
1607. Shaks., Cor., V. i. 5. Go … fall downe, and knee The way into his mercy.
1864. Earl Derby, Iliad, XXII. 409. Knee me no knees, vile hound! nor prate to me Of parents!
1869. Pall Mall Gaz., 22 July, 4/2. It was a rare sight to see the throng, old and young and slim and fat, kneeing their way up stair by stair with the Pope at their head.
2. trans. To supplicate, or do obeisance to, by kneeling or bending the knee. arch.
1592. Nashe, P. Penilesse (1842), 45. Thou has capd and kneed him … for a chipping.
1605. Shaks., Lear, II. iv. 217. I could as well be brought To knee his Throne, and Squire-like pension beg.
1784. Cowper, Task, VI. 937. Sycophants, who knee Thy name, adoring.
1888. R. Buchanan, City of Dream, VIII. 162. They knee strange gods.
3. To strike or touch with the knee.
1892. Pall Mall Gaz., 23 March, 2/1. Benson, at Beccles, whilst defending the College goal…, was ‘kneed a violent blow in the groin.’ Ibid. Peter [or Frank] Bradshaw received injuries in an Association game…. It is fair to infer that the injury was received from kneeing the ball.
1899. M. Hewlett, in Blackw. Mag., Feb., 333. Evenly forward she came … without so much as kneeing her skirt.
4. Carpentry. To fasten with a knee or knees.
1711. W. Sutherland, Ship-build. Assist., 71. To be Dove-tail’d into the Clamps And double Knee’d.
c. 1850. Rudim. Navig. (Weale), 129. The clamps … are … supplied, the beams knee’d.
5. Sc. a. trans. To give a knee-like or angular bend to. b. intr. To bend in an angle.
1808–18. Jamieson, s.v., The wind is said to knee corn, when it breaks it down so that it strikes root by the stalk. Ibid. (1825–80), To knee irne, to bend iron into an angular form. Ibid., To knee, to bend in the middle, as a nail in being driven into the wall.
1851. Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., XII. I. 117. When bulky the culms knee over above the first joint from the ground.
6. trans. To make a cut in the knee of (a beast), in order to disable it.
1890. L. C. D’Oyle, Notches, 35 (U.S.). ‘Dandy’ took out his knife, and, had I not been close by, would have ‘kneed’ the steer before letting him up.
Hence Kneeing vbl. sb.
a. 1240. Ureisun, in Cott. Hom., 199. Þu miht forȝelden … Al mi swinc and mi sor and mine kneouwunge.
