Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Having the legs curved inward so that the knees touch or knock together in walking; hence, halting; feeble: as, a very knock-kneed argument. Formerly also knack-kneed.

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

  • adjective Having the legs bent inward so that the knees touch in walking.

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

  • adjective Alternative spelling of knockkneed.

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

  • adjective having the knees abnormally close together and the ankles wide apart

Etymologies

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Examples

  • While the world marched along in practised synchrony I was the one who chose to lag behind, knock-kneed and slightly out of step.

    My Other Mother is a Ferrari Sally Houtman 2012

  • Between the author's name, the book's title and the cover art, which features a black woman with red lips, a long weave and a knock-kneed pose in fishnet stockings -- you pretty much know what kind of story is inside without reading the back cover.

    Demetria Irwin: 'Urban Fiction' I Actually Like? Demetria Irwin 2012

  • Notice that the round muscle-pads on the inner sides that make most women appear knock-kneed are missing.

    THE KANAKA SURF 2010

  • Miraculous, until you realise that the knock-kneed, squinty-eyed prince was one of the most recognisable men in France.

    Classic France: the insiders' guide 2011

  • As a result, women's knees are more likely to collapse inward, in a knock-kneed position, and suffer injury.

    New Steps to Help Prevent Knee Injuries in Teen Sports Katherine Hobson 2011

  • Think Buenos Aires, runaway Nazis, giant dice in the opening shot and musical numbers – all grafted on to a three-way melodrama of outrageous sexual provocation and emotional blackmail that's played like a minuet by scheming adventuress Hayworth and her two knock-kneed beaus itinerant gambler Glenn Ford and scarfaced casino boss George Macready on a gigantic, lavishly appointed set that amounts to a fantasia on mid-century Hollywood's notions of Latin-Americanness.

    Gilda is pure, undistilled Rita Hayworth 2011

  • As someone who is slightly knock-kneed, getting older and finding my hips less tolerant of “mashing,” I was thinking a wider stance might be more natural in my case.

    Ask Nick: Flying with bikes and shoe questions 2011

  • Between the author's name, the book's title and the cover art, which features a black woman with red lips, a long weave and a knock-kneed pose in fishnet stockings -- you pretty much know what kind of story is inside without reading the back cover.

    Demetria Irwin: 'Urban Fiction' I Actually Like? Demetria Irwin 2012

  • All his art is self-portraiture while his pseudo-radical groupuscule, the toothsomely named Party of Dynamic Erection, is camouflage for the knock-kneed terror that its members – Wick, Irwin and Nipple Warner – all feel in the presence of women.

    Eunarchy in the UK: George Harrison's first movie 2011

  • In the same way, the arch of its foot and its leg bones were well suited for human-like upright walking—with a slightly knock-kneed gait—while its heel and shin bone were more like those of a chimpanzee, better configured for climbing trees.

    Fossil Trove Sheds Light On a Stage of Evolution Robert Lee Hotz 2011

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