[f. prec. sb.]
1. intr. To place one’s knuckles upon the ground in shooting or casting the taw in playing at marbles: see sense 4. Usually knuckle down.
1740. Dyche & Pardon, Knuckle or Knuckle down (v.) … is a particular phrase used by lads at a play called taw, wherein they frequently say, Knuckle down to your taw, or fit your hand exactly in the place where your marble lies.
1784. Cowper, Tiroc., 307. As happy as we once, to kneel and draw The chalky ring, and knuckle down at taw.
1842. Tennyson, Will Waterproof Monol., xvii. A something-pottle-bodied boy, That knuckled at the taw.
2. intr. (fig.) To acknowledge oneself beaten; to give way, give in, submit. Usually knuckle down or knuckle under.
1740. Dyche & Pardon, Knuckle or Knuckle down, to stoop, bend, yield, comply with, or submit to.
1791. Wolcott (P. Pindar), Remonstrance, 73. I knuckle not—I owe not to the great A thimble-full of obligation.
1871. Carlyle, in Mrs. C.’s Lett., II. 237. He had to knuckle and comply in all points.
1882. Miss Braddon, Mt. Royal, II. iv. 63. They must all knuckle under to him.
1888. Times, 27 Oct., 8/2. He would not knuckle down under the attacks of the Land League.
b. To knuckle down to, to apply oneself earnestly or vigorously (Webster, 1864).
3. trans. To tap, strike, press or rub with the knuckles.
a. 1793. J. Pearson, Polit. Dict., 49. Little Shiells, who is a mercenary dog, knuckles them [reporters] just as he pleases.
c. 1825. Beddoes, Poems, Life a Glass Window. Uncourteous Death Knuckles the pane.
1842. H. Smith, Addr. Mummy, vi. I need not ask thee if that hand, when arm’d, Has any Roman soldier maul’d and knuckled.
1890. W. Clark Russell, Ocean Trag., I. xii. 251. The seaman knuckled his forehead and wheeled round.
4. trans. To propel or shoot (a marble, etc.) from between the knuckle of the thumb and the bent forefinger.
1803. W. Taylor, in Ann. Rev., I. 354/1. Flying kites, knuckling marbles, chuck-halfpenny, or hop-crease.
1897. Crockett, Lads’ Love, x. 106. ‘Go on,’ she said, knuckling little stones at a puddock.
5. intr. To protrude or project like a knuckle.
c. 1862. in Circ. Sc., I. 272/2. There is no danger of the conductor knuckling through the gutta-percha.
Hence Knuckle-down as sb.: a. a game at marbles (see prec. 1 and 4); b. submission; as adv. = submissively.
1859. Ruskin, Two Paths, iv. (1891), 178. How that vagabond child at the street corner is managing his game of knuckle-down.
1878. E. Jenkins, Haverholme, 215. Our people are bent on nothing but a complete knuckle-down.
1880. Blackmore, Mary Anerley, III. 184. Long sighs only lead to turn-up noses. He plays too knuckle-down at it.
