Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. An unprincipled, crafty fellow.
- n. A male servant.
- n. A man of humble birth.
- n. Games See jack.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A boy; a boy as a servant; a servant; a fellow.
- n. A friend; a crony: used as a term of endearment.
- n. A false, deceitful fellow; a dishonest person; one given to fraudulent tricks or practices; a rogue or scoundrel.
- n. A playing-card with a servant (usually, in English and American cards, in a conventionalized costume of the sixteenth century) figured on it; a jack.
- To prove or make a knave.
Wiktionary
- n. archaic A boy; especially, a boy servant.
- n. archaic Any male servant; a menial.
- n. A tricky, deceitful fellow; a dishonest person; a rogue; a villain.
- n. card games A playing card marked with the figure of a servant or soldier; a jack.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. obsolete A boy; especially, a boy servant.
- n. obsolete Any male servant; a menial.
- n. A tricky, deceitful fellow; a dishonest person; a rogue; a villain.
- n. A playing card marked with the figure of a servant or soldier; a jack.
WordNet 3.0
- n. one of four face cards in a deck bearing a picture of a young prince
- n. a deceitful and unreliable scoundrel
Etymologies
- From Middle English knave, from Old English cnafa ("child, boy, youth; servant"), from Proto-Germanic *knabô (“boy, youth”), from Proto-Indo-European *gnebʰ- (“to press, tighten”), from Proto-Indo-European *gen- (“to pinch, squeeze, bend, press together, ball”). Cognate with German Knabe ("lad"). Related also to knape. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English, from Old English cnafa, boy, male servant. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“I am but a fool, look you; and yet I have the wit to think my master is a kind of a knave: but that's all one, if he be but one knave] [W: but one kind] This alteration is acute and specious, yet I know not whether, in Shakespeare's language, _one knave_ may not signify a _knave on only one occasion_,”
“Romeo and Juliet," the chorus narrates, "His name was Geoffrey Lebowski called yet/Not called, excepting by his kin/That which we call a knave by any other name/Might bowl just as sweet.”
“A tattered knave arrived at this dressing-room, deposited his thirty sous and selected, according to the part which he wished to play, the costume which suited him, and on descending the stairs once more, the knave was a somebody.”
“St. Honore, at Paris, sat a man ALONE — a man who has been maligned, a man who has been called a knave and charlatan, a man who has been persecuted even to the death, it is said, in Roman”
“That was somewhat away from the most precious part of the church, the knave, which is built over the grotto where Jesus is said to have been born.”
“For the king is unwise, so are his knights, and a knave is his brother, the one as the other; therefore may Britons be much the un-bolder, when the head (leader) is bad, the heap”
“Turning to the bewildered old man, he continues: "to be called a knave, and upbraided in this manner by your daughter, when I have befriended you all these days!”
“For any man to profess to be governed by the fixed principles of justice, of honor, of truth, or of generosity, is sufficient to stamp him a hypocrite and a designing knave, that is lying in wait under these characters for the happiness of others.”
“The knave is the highest card, then the ace, king, etc.”
The Laws of Euchre As adopted by the Somerset Club of Boston, March 1, 1888
“After all, as no doubt your friends have told you, you played what, as a minister of the Crown, I must call a knave's part in attempting to save this popish traitor, although by God's Providence, you were frustrated.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘knave’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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Dirty Deeds, Acts & Villainous Arcana
Villains, evildoers, and the wonderful words to describe them.
putsch, internecine, galère, stygian, infernal, opprobrium, anathema, bruit, scurrility, mulct, misanthropic, invective and 102 more...
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scoundrels and bastards
already several of these lists, but I wanted my own
varlet, scoundrel, ne'er-do-well, cad, thug, churl, boor, hooligan, bastard, slubberdegullion, dastard, tosspot and 85 more...
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knaves, rogues and stewed prunes
The Bard had a nasty streak.
swaggering rascal, lack-linen, scurvy companion, ape of death, sanguine coward, bed-presser, huge hill of flesh, horseback-breaker, mouldy rogue, braggart vile, damned furious wight, bull's pizzle and 30 more...
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Rogue
Terms describing roguish persons.
hellcat, she-devil, depraved, blackguard, rapscallion, knave, rascal, blasphemer, heretic, sinner, damnable, ne'er-do-well and 8 more...
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Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and ...
Words that, as I see it, have some fond connection to the Alice stories through their creation or particular use by Lewis Carroll. I mean to tie them all together with contexty comments!
alice, daisy-chain, white rabbit, waistcoat-pocket, rabbit-hole, marmalade, antipathy, antipode, curtsey, dinah, tea-time, rat-hole and 232 more...
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135 Offensive Shakespearean Terms
135 Offensive Shakespearean Terms =)
artless, baggage, barnacle, bawdy, beef-witted, bladder, boil-brained, bootless, brazen, cankerblossom, churlish, churrish and 123 more...
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Sense and Sensibility
Words from the book by Jane Austen.
shew, shewn, shewing, shewed, dupe, wither, rambled, extorting, cavil, rap, mildness, controuled and 133 more...
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Stumbled Words
A list of words that I stumbled upon while reading.
penumbra, prolix, propitious, resplendence, sepulchral, Weltschmerz, apparition, brigand, probity, chalice, paroxysm, pallor and 160 more...
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Actual and Spectulative Sburb Classes
A list of all known Heroic Classes available to players of the game Sburb within the Homestuck universe, as well as any other words I can think of which would theoretically adhere to the known guid...
heir, seer, knight, witch, maid, page, thief, mage, rogue, sylph, prince, bard and 116 more...
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ADW1
obdurate, obstinate, behest, injunction, enjoin, circumspect, ensconce, discursive, lugubrious, doleful, somber, ken and 2476 more...
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delcj's Words
gavotte, perverse, tchotchkes, schmoop, divisural, triplicostate, albatross, snuggery, virgule, separatrix, solidus, tetrodotoxin and 116 more...
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NakedFringe's Words
masticate, chamber, orchid, mandolin, yellow, pomegranate, conundrum, paradox, gyrate, calamitous, opalescent, cacophony and 533 more...
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Joshee Word List
gash, engross, entail, stoke, ode, vacillate, aspersion, asperity, clan, kith, prospect, nag and 229 more...
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My List
A list of words that I have generated over time.
cairn, cacodaemoniacal, abash, abject, abjure, abstemious, abhor, abnegate, abnegation, abscond, abstruse, acclivity and 702 more...
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Fun Words
Words that have funny meanings or are just fun to say.
kumquat, chimichanga, sarsparilla, rutabaga, rumpus, flummox, encrusted, prestidigitation, pomegranate, preposterous, dentiloquist, sepulchre and 323 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for knave.
milosrdenstvi "Silence, knave!" Aug 14, 2008
brtom I know him to be artful, selfish, and malicious—in short, a sentimental knave
Sheridan, School for Scandal Jan 5, 2008