knit

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

• IPA^(key): /ˈnɪt/

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪt
• Homophone: nit

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

1. (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.

2. (transitive, intransitive) To create a stitch by pulling the working yarn through an existing stitch from back to front.

   Stitches that are knitted look like little V’s when seen from the front.

3. (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 Eld for T T and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC:

     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, 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], edited by H Lawes, A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634:  [Comus], London: [Augustine Matthews] for Hvmphrey Robinson, , published 1637, →OCLC; 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, 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, Canto XXXIX, 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;

4. (intransitive) To become closely and firmly joined; become compacted.
5. (intransitive) To grow together.

   All those seedlings knitted into a kaleidoscopic border.

6. (transitive) To combine from various elements.

   The witness knitted together his testimony from contradictory pieces of hearsay.

7. (intransitive, of bones) To heal following a fracture.

   I’ll go skiing again after my bones knit.

8. (transitive) To form into a knot, or into knots; to tie together, as cord; to fasten by tying.
   • c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     When your head did but ache,
     I knit my handkercher about your brows,

   • 1611, The Holy Bible,  (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, Acts 10:11:

     saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending upon him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners […]

9. (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 Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     He knits his brow and shows an angry eye,

• (create a stitch by pulling yarn through from back): purl

• tricot
• weave

knit (plural knits)

1. 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.

2. A session of knitting.
   • 2014, Elvira Woodruff, To Knit or Not to Knit:

     It's always time for a bit of a knit.

• Knitting on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• tink