English Online Dictionary. What means knight? What does knight mean?
English
Pronunciation
- enPR: nīt, IPA(key): /naɪt/
- Rhymes: -aɪt
- Homophones: night, nite
Etymology 1
From Middle English knight, knyght, kniht, from Old English cniht (“boy; servant, knight”), from Proto-West Germanic *kneht.
Alternative forms
- knyght
Noun
knight (plural knights)
- (historical) A young servant or follower; a trained military attendant in service of a lord.
- (historical) A minor nobleman with an honourable military rank who had served as a page and squire.
- (by extension) An armored and mounted warrior of the Middle Ages.
- (law, historical) A person obliged to provide knight service in exchange for maintenance of an estate held in knight's fee.
- (modern) A person on whom a knighthood has been conferred by a monarch.
- (literary) A brave, chivalrous and honorable man devoted to a noble cause or love interest.
- (chess) A chess piece, often in the shape of a horse's head, that is moved two squares in one direction and one at right angles to that direction in a single move, leaping over any intervening pieces.
- (card games, dated) A playing card bearing the figure of a knight; the knave or jack.
- (entomology) Any of various nymphalid butterflies of the genus Ypthima.
- (modern) Any mushroom belonging to genus Tricholoma.
Synonyms
- (chess piece): horse (informal)
Hyponyms
- knight banneret, banneret
Coordinate terms
- knight's fee, knight service
Derived terms
Translations
See also
- ♘, ♞
- Appendix:Chess pieces
Etymology 2
From Middle English knighten, kniȝten, from the noun. Cognate with Middle High German knehten.
Verb
knight (third-person singular simple present knights, present participle knighting, simple past and past participle knighted)
- (transitive) To confer knighthood upon.
- (chess, transitive) To promote (a pawn) to a knight.
Synonyms
- dub
Derived terms
Translations
See also
- paladin
- baronet
References
- “knight”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
Middle English
Noun
knight
- Alternative form of knyght