1. Any bone forming a knuckle; the rounded end, at the joint, of any of the bones of the fingers; also, † the projecting bone of the knee or elbow (obs.). Down on the knuckle-bone, hard up (slang).
1571. Dee, Diary (Camden), 3. My fall uppon my right nuckul bone.
1690. Dryden, Amphitryon, II. i. Bless me, what an arm and a fist he has…; and knuckle-bones of a very butcher.
1883. Daily Tel., 4 Aug., 2/1. Someone who was ‘down on the knuckle-bone’ in consequence of having been ‘put away’ since the previous October.
2. In an animal: a. A limb-bone with a ball-like knob at the joint-end, or the rounded end of such a bone; also, a joint of meat consisting of this part of an animal’s leg; = KNUCKLE sb. 3.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 280/2. Knokylle bone of a legge, coxa.
1530. Palsgr., 236/2. Knoccle bone, joincte de la hanche.
1677. Lond. Gaz., No. 1226/4. A black brown Gelding … [having] a white spot upon one of his knuckle bones.
1857. Hughes, Tom Brown, II. iii. He … hauled out an old knuckle-bone of ham, and two or three bottles of beer.
b. One of the metacarpal or metatarsal bones of a sheep or the like; hence, (usually pl.) a game played with these, by tossing them up and catching them in various ways; also called huckle-bones or dibs.
1759. trans. Adanson’s Voy. Senegal, 52. The girls had for ornament round their waist a girdle of glass toys, or,… of a requien’s knuckle-bones, or of cockle-shells.
1880. C. R. Markham, Peruv. Bark, xii. 106. Courtyards very neatly paved with round pebbles and llama’s knuckle-bones in patterns.
1884. J. Sharman, Hist. Swearing, iv. 63. School-boys still play at the game of knuckle-bones.
1885. New Bk. Sports, 316. Knucklebones … is pre-eminently a game for man-by-himself-man.
