KNOT

I. noun Etymology: Middle English, from Old English cnotta; akin to Old High German ~o ~ Date: before 12th century 1. an interlacement of the parts of one or more flexible bodies forming a lump or knob (as for fastening or tying together), the lump or knob so formed, a tight constriction or the sense of constriction , something hard to solve ; problem , a bond of union, 4. a protuberant lump or swelling in tissue , the base of a woody branch enclosed in the stem from which it arises, a cluster of persons or things ; group , an ornamental bow of ribbon ; cockade , 7. a division of the log's line serving to measure a ship's speed, b. one nautical mile per hour, one nautical mile, a closed curve in three-dimensional space, II. verb (~ted; ~ting) Date: 1547 transitive verb to tie in or with a ~ ; form ~s in, to unite closely or intricately ; entangle , tie 4b , intransitive verb to form ~s, ~ter noun III. noun (plural ~s or ~) Etymology: Middle English ~t Date: 15th century either of two sandpipers ( Calidris canutus and C. tenuirostris ) that breed in the Arctic and winter in temperate or warm parts of the New and Old World