knit

English

Knitting.

Etymology

From Middle English knytten, from Old English cnyttan (“to fasten, tie, bind, knit; add, append”), from Proto-West Germanic *knuttijan, from Proto-Germanic *knutjaną, *knuttijaną (“to make knots, knit”).

Cognate with Old Norse knýta (whence Danish knytte, Norwegian Nynorsk knyta) and Northern German knütten. More at knot.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˈnɪt/
Audio (UK) (file)
Rhymes: -ɪt
Homophone: nit

Verb

knit (third-person singular simple present knits, present participle knitting, simple past and past participle knit or knitted)

(transitive, intransitive) To turn thread or yarn into a piece of fabric by forming loops that are pulled through each other. This can be done by hand with needles or by machine.
to knit a stocking
The first generation knitted to order; the second still knits for its own use; the next leaves knitting to industrial manufacturers.
(figuratively, transitive) To join closely and firmly together.
The fight for survival knitted the men closely together.
- 1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 26”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, OCLC 216596634:
  Lord of my love, to whom in vassalage
  Thy merit hath my duty strongly knit,
  To thee I send this written embassage,
- 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, 1 Samuel 18:1:
  And it came to pass, when he had made an end of speaking unto Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.
- 1634 October 9 (first performance), [John Milton], H[enry] Lawes, editor, A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634: […] [Comus], London: […] [Augustine Matthews] for Hvmphrey Robinson, […], published 1637, OCLC 228715864; reprinted as Comus: […] (Dodd, Mead & Company’s Facsimile Reprints of Rare Books; Literature Series; no. I), New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1903, OCLC 1113942837, page 6:
  Come, knit hands, and beate the ground
  In a light fantastick round.
- 1672, Richard Wiseman, A Treatise of Wounds, London: Richard Royston,
  Nature cannot knit the bones while the parts are under a discharge.
- 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], OCLC 3968433, canto 39, page 60:
  Her office there to rear, to teach,
  Becoming as is meet and fit
  A link among the days, to knit
  The generations each with each;
(intransitive) To become closely and firmly joined; become compacted.
(intransitive) To grow together.
All those seedlings knitted into a kaleidoscopic border.
(transitive) To combine from various elements.
The witness knitted together his testimony from contradictory pieces of hearsay.
(intransitive, of bones) To heal following a fracture.
I’ll go skiing again after my bones knit.
(transitive) To form into a knot, or into knots; to tie together, as cord; to fasten by tying.
- c. 1596, William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act IV, scene i]:
  When your head did but ache,
  I knit my handkercher about your brows,
- 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, Acts 10:11:
  [He] saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending upon him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners […]
(transitive) To draw together; to contract into wrinkles.
- 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act III, scene i]:
  He knits his brow and shows an angry eye,

Derived terms

beknit
close-knit
knit one's brow
knit one's brows
knitter
knitting
knitting needle
knitwear
stick to one's knitting
unknit
well-knit

Translations

to make fabric from thread or yarn

Arabic: حَاكَ‎ (ḥāka)
Armenian: հյուսել (hy) (hyusel)
Assyrian Neo-Aramaic: ܣܵܪܹܓ݂‎ (sārēḡ)
Azerbaijani: toxumaq (az)
Bashkir: бәйләү (bäyläw)/бәйҙәү (bäyðäw)
Belarusian: вяза́ць (vjazácʹ)
Bulgarian: плета́ (bg) (pletá)
Burmese: ထိုး (my) (htui:)
Catalan: fer mitja
Chinese:
Mandarin: 編織／编织 (zh) (biānzhī), 織／织 (zh) (zhī)
Czech: plést
Danish: strikke
Dutch: breien (nl)
Esperanto: triki
Faroese: binda (fo)
Finnish: neuloa (fi), kutoa (fi) (regional)
French: tricoter (fr)
Georgian: ქსოვა (ksova)
German: stricken (de)
Greek: πλέκω (el) (pléko)
Hebrew: סָרַג‎ (he) (sarág)
Hindi: बुनना (hi) (bunnā)
Hungarian: köt (hu)
Icelandic: prjóna
Irish: cniotáil
Italian: lavorare a maglia, ^{(please verify)} sferruzzare
Japanese: 編む (ja) (あむ, amu)
Khmer: ស្រែះ (km) (sreh), ចាក់ (km) (cak)
Korean: 뜨다 (ko) (tteuda)
Kurdish:
Central Kurdish: چنین‎ (ku) (çnîn)
Lao: ຖັກ (thak)
Latgalian: adeit
Latvian: adīt
Lithuanian: megzti
Luxembourgish: strécken
Macedonian: пле́те (pléte)
Malagasy: manao ba (mg)
Maori: nitiniti
Mongolian: сүлжих (mn) (sülžix)
Norman: ouvrer
Norwegian: strikke (no)
Persian: بافتن‎ (fa) (bâftan)
Polish: robić na drutach (pl), dziać (pl)
Portuguese: tricotar (pt), fazer ponto
Romanian: tricota (ro), împleti (ro), croșeta (ro)
Russian: вяза́ть (ru) impf (vjazátʹ), связа́ть (ru) pf (svjazátʹ)
Scottish Gaelic: figh
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: плести
Roman: plesti (sh)
Slovak: štrikovať, pliesť
Slovene: plesti (sl)
Spanish: hacer punto, tricotar (es), tejer (es)
Swedish: sticka (sv)
Tajik: бофтан (tg) (boftan)
Thai: ถัก (th) (tàk)
Turkish: örmek (tr)
Ukrainian: в'яза́ти (uk) (vʺjazáty)
Uzbek: toʻqimoq (uz)
Vietnamese: đan (vi)
Welsh: gwau (cy), gweu (cy)

to join closely together

Bulgarian: сплотявам (bg) (splotjavam)
Dutch: aaneenbreien
Finnish: hitsata (fi), yhdistää (fi)
French: souder (fr), unir (fr)
Georgian: შეერთება (šeerteba), შეზრდა (šezrda)
Italian: legare (it)
Maori: tūhoto
Portuguese: soldar (pt)
Russian: спла́чивать (ru) impf (spláčivatʹ), сплоти́ть (ru) pf (splotítʹ)

intransitive: to become closely joined

Dutch: aaneengroeien (nl)
Finnish: hitsautua, yhdistyä (fi)
French: ^{(please verify)} se souder
Italian: saldarsi, compattare (it)
Spanish: soldarse (es)

to combine from various elements

Bulgarian: съединявам (bg) (sǎedinjavam)
Dutch: samenbreien
Finnish: yhdistellä (fi), punoa (fi)
French: construire (fr), élaborer (fr), échafauder (fr)
Italian: elaborare (it)
Portuguese: construir (pt), elaborar (pt)
Spanish: construir (es), elaborar (es)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

German: ^{(please verify)} stricken (de)
Indonesian: ^{(please verify)} rajut (id), ^{(please verify)} merajut (id)
Italian: ^{(please verify)} lavorare a maglia, ^{(please verify)} lavorare ai ferri
Kurdish:
Central Kurdish: ^{(please verify)} چنین‎ (ku) (çnîn)

Noun

knit (plural knits)

A knitted garment.
- 2012, Melanie Calvert, Freycinet, page 105:
  There are grey Grecian tops and a light, sheer, silver cardigan. Stylish dark grey tailored trousers, silver thongs and shiny jet-black stilettos. Black sheer blouses with squared bib fronts, and expensive-looking black and dark grey woollen knits.
A session of knitting.
- 2014, Elvira Woodruff, To Knit or Not to Knit:
  It's always time for a bit of a knit.

References

Knitting on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

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