1. A stick, cane, or club, having a rounded knob for its head; a knobbed stick.
1824. [see b].
1867. Crim. Chronol. York Castle, 190. Beating him over the head with knobsticks.
1887. Jessopp, Arcady, vii. 192. Political nostrums which they are prepared to force down the throats of the community with the knob sticks of the mob.
b. Such a stick used as a weapon; a knobkerrie.
1822. Burchell, Trav. S. Afr., I. 354. A kéeri (a short knob-stick) in his hand.
1859. R. F. Burton, Centr. Afr., in Jrnl. Geog. Soc., XXIX. 266. Terrifying the enemy with maniacal gestures, while stones and knobsticks fly through the air.
1894. B. Mitford, Curse Clement Waynflete, vii. 241. The warrior’s heavy knobstick, hurled with deadly precision.
2. A name given, by workmen, to one who during a strike or lock-out continues to work on the master’s terms; a black-leg. (See also quot. 1892.) Also attrib.
1826. Examiner, 15 Oct., 663/2. Skirmishes … between the turn-outs and those whom they call ‘knobsticks.’
1826. Ann. Reg., 151/2. One man, a weaver, was accused of being ‘a knobstick spinner.’
1848. Mrs. Gaskell, Mary Barton, xvi. Taken up last week for throwing vitriol in a knob-stick’s face.
1892. Labour Commission, Gloss., A knobstick is one who takes the work of an operative on strike, or refuses to go out on strike along with his fellow-workmen…. Workmen … who are not members of a trade union are frequently called knobsticks by the unionist workmen. The term is also applied to men who work at a trade to which they served no apprenticeship.
b. A master who employs men on terms not recognized by a trade-union.
1851–61. Mayhew, Lond. Labour, III. 220 (Hoppe). I next went to work at a under-priced hatter’s, termed a ‘knobstick’s.’
