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knack

noun
/næk/

Etymology

Late Middle English, use as "special skill" from 1580. Possibly from 14th century Middle English krak, knack (“a sharp sound or blow”), knakke, knakken, from Middle Low German and of imitative origin, similar to Dutch knak (“snap, crack”). Latter cognate to German knacken (“to crack”). See also crack.

  1. inherited from krak

Definitions

  1. A readiness in performance

    A readiness in performance; aptness at doing something.

    • These men had some uncanny knack of knowing when the steel was right, and like many such things, it just could not be put into a textbook on the subject.
    • The sophist runs for cover to the darkness of what is not and attaches himself to it by some knack of his;
    • And the Premier League's all-time top-goalscoring midfielder proved he has not lost the knack of being in the right place at the right time with a trio of clinical finishes.

  2. A petty contrivance

    A petty contrivance; a toy.

  3. Something performed, or to be done, requiring aptness and dexterity.

  4. ›+ 3 more definitions

    1. To crack

      To crack; to make a sharp, abrupt noise; to chink.

      • If they hear the Beads knack upon each other, that's enough.

    2. To speak affectedly.

    3. A surname.

The neighborhood

Derived

knackish, knackless, knacky

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at knack. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01knack02contrivance03overly04superficially05superficial06closely07privately08private09confidential10secret

A definitional loop anchored at knack. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

10 hops · closes at knack

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA