knap, knappe

[A variant of knob (q.v.); blue flowers; wild in Northern Europe, Siberia, Icel. knappr; Dan. knap; Wel. спар.] 1. A protuberance, a knob, a swelling. 2. A hillock; a rising ground; a summit. *knap-knob, s. A swelling lump. *knăp, v. t. & i. [Dut. knappen to crack, to crush; cogn. with Dan. kneppe to snap, to crack with the fingers; knep =a scrap, a crack.] A. Transitive : 1. To break with a noise; to snap. "He knapped the staff of the dart asunder."- North : Plutarch, p. 306. 2. To strike so as to make a sharp, cracking noise. "Take a ve el of water, and knap a pair of tongs some depth within the water, and you shall hear the sound of the tongs well."- Bacon : Nat . Hist ., § 133. B. Intransitive: IMG:content-0264.png:[blocks in formation] knāve, s . [A. S. cnafa =a boy; cogn. with Dut. knaap a lad, a servant; Icel. knap i =a servant boy; Sw. knäfvel =a rogue; Ger. knabe a boy.] I. Ordinary Language : 1. Originally a boy. "If it is a knave child, sle ye him; if it is a womman, kepe ye."- Wycliffe : Exod . i. 16. *2. A servant. "And bit his knave knele, that shall his coppe holde, He loketh alle louring." Piers Plowman , p. 83. 3. A false, deceitful, tricky fellow; a dishonest person; a trickster. "Of these a large proportion were knaves and liber tines."-Macaulay: Hist. Eng., ch. iii. II. Cards: One of the court-cards, having on it a picture of a soldier or a servant; a jack.