Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Reaching as high as the knees.
  • adjective Submerged to the knees.
  • adjective Deeply occupied or involved.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Rising to the knees: as, the snow lay knee-deep.
  • Sunk to the knees: as, wading knee-deep in water or mire.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Rising to the knees; knee-high.
  • adjective Sunk to the knees.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Reaching up to the knees.
  • adjective Submerged to the knees.
  • adjective figuratively, by extension Deeply involved in something, or preoccupied with something.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective coming only to the ankle or knee
  • adverb up to the knees

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

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Examples

  • "Dolly looks as though she'd forgotten all about yesterday," Chris said, as they sat their horses knee-deep in the rushing water.

    Jack London's Short Story: Planchette 2010

  • Standing knee-deep in the icy water, the Minook men, with Montana Kid and the policeman, gripped hands and raised their voices in the terrible, "Battle Hymn of the Republic."

    AT THE RAINBOW'S END 2010

  • Harry's passion is theatre/arts therapy and he's knee-deep in starting up his own practice.

    Day in the Life of an Idiot lyda222 2009

  • And finally, at the end of an hour, with aching back, sweat-soaked shirt, and slaughtered hands, you are through and swinging along on the placid, beneficent tide between narrow banks where the cattle stand knee-deep and gaze wonderingly at you.

    SMALL-BOAT SAILING 2010

  • The red-coated, many-antlered buck acknowledged the lordship of the spirit of the place and dozed knee-deep in the cool, shaded pool.

    All Gold Canon 2010

  • A Coast Guardsman, wanting to memorialize his role in fighting the spill, asked for a tattoo of SpongeBob SquarePants, the cartoon character, standing knee-deep in oil.

    Adrift in oil, then money David A. Fahrenthold 2010

  • "I am not from here," said the 70-year-old rice farmer, as his bloodshot eyes tried to measure whether his boxy white truck could make it through the knee-deep water.

    'My Grandson Is Here' Eric Bellman 2011

  • Instead, he found himself knee-deep in letters from students at Ohio State who wanted to know if I had any other secrets to share.

    The Quiet Coup 2009

  • A Coast Guardsman, wanting to memorialize his role in fighting the spill, asked for a tattoo of SpongeBob SquarePants, the cartoon character, standing knee-deep in oil.

    Six months after the spill, BP's money is changing the gulf as much as its oil David A. Fahrenthold 2010

  • Jeering and cursing us, the guards ran in the fire hose and played the fierce streams on us, dungeon by dungeon, hour after hour, until our bruised flesh was battered all anew by the violence with which the water smote us, until we stood knee-deep in the water which we had raved for and for which now we raved to cease.

    Chapter 4 2010

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