Knot vs Swell - What's the difference?
knot | swell | Related terms |
A looping of a piece of string or of any other long, flexible material that cannot be untangled without passing one or both ends of the material through its loops.
(of hair, etc) A tangled clump.
A maze-like pattern.
* Milton
(mathematics) A non-self-intersecting closed curve in (e.g., three-dimensional) space that is an abstraction of a knot (in sense 1 above).
A difficult situation.
* South
The whorl left in lumber by the base of a branch growing out of the tree's trunk.
Local swelling in a tissue area, especially skin, often due to injury.
A protuberant joint in a plant.
Any knob, lump, swelling, or protuberance.
* Tennyson
The point on which the action of a story depends; the gist of a matter.
(engineering) A node.
A kind of epaulet; a shoulder knot.
A group of people or things.
* Shakespeare
* Sir Walter Scott
* 1968, Bryce Walton, Harpoon Gunner , Thomas Y. Crowell Company, NY, (1968), page 20,
A bond of union; a connection; a tie.
* Shakespeare
* Bishop Hall
To form into a knot; to tie with a knot or knots.
* Tennyson
To form wrinkles in the forehead, as a sign of concentration, concern, surprise, etc.
To unite closely; to knit together.
(obsolete, rare) To entangle or perplex; to puzzle.
(nautical) A unit of speed, equal to one nautical mile per hour.
(slang) A nautical mile (incorrectly)
One of a variety of shore birds; the red-breasted sandpiper (variously Calidris canutus or ).
To become bigger, especially due to being engorged.
* Shakespeare
To cause to become bigger.
* Atterbury
* {{quote-book, year=1905, author=
, title=
, chapter=2 * 2013 June 18, (Simon Romero), "
To grow gradually in force or loudness.
To raise to arrogance; to puff up; to inflate.
To be raised to arrogance.
* Shakespeare
* Sir Walter Scott
To be elated; to rise arrogantly.
* Dryden
To be turgid, bombastic, or extravagant.
To protuberate; to bulge out.
The act of swelling.
Increase of power in style, or of rhetorical force.
* Landor:
A long series of ocean waves, generally produced by wind, and lasting after the wind has ceased.
* 1883 , , Treasure Island , ch. 24:
(music) A gradual crescendo followed by diminuendo.
* , chapter=5
, title= (music) A device for controlling the volume of a pipe organ.
(music) A division in a pipe organ, usually the largest enclosed division.
A hillock or similar raised area of terrain.
* 1909 , , The Last of the Chiefs , ch. 2:
(informal) A person who is dressed in a fancy or elegant manner.
* , "The Kickleburys on the Rhine" in The Christmas Books of Mr. M. A. Titmarsh :
* 1887 , , The Cash Boy , ch. 9:
(informal) A person of high social standing; an important person.
* 1864 , , The Small House at Allington , ch. 2:
* 1906 , , The Trespasser , ch. 8:
Excellent.
* 2012 , (Ariel Levy), "The Space In Between", The New Yorker , 10 Sep 2012:
Knot is a related term of swell.
As verbs the difference between knot and swell
is that knot is (knyta) while swell is to become bigger, especially due to being engorged.As a noun swell is
the act of swelling.As an adjective swell is
excellent.knot
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) cnotta, from (etyl) , compare Latin nodus and its Romance successors.Noun
(en noun)- Climbers must make sure that all knots are both secure and of types that will not weaken the rope.
- The nurse was brushing knots from the protesting child's hair.
- Flowers worthy of paradise, which, not nice art / In beds and curious knots , but nature boon / Poured forth profuse on hill, and dale, and plain.
- A knot can be defined as a non-self-intersecting broken line whose endpoints coincide: when such a knot is constrained to lie in a plane, then it is simply a polygon.
- A knot in its original sense can be modeled as a mathematical knot''' (or link) as follows: if the knot is made with a single piece of rope, then abstract the shape of that rope and then extend the working end to merge it with the standing end, yielding a mathematical '''knot'''. If the knot is attached to a metal ring, then that metal ring can be modeled as a trivial '''knot''' and the pair of '''knots''' become a link. If more than one mathematical ' knot (or link) can be thus obtained, then the simplest one (avoiding detours) is probably the one which one would want.
- I got into a knot when I inadvertently insulted a policeman.
- A man shall be perplexed with knots , and problems of business, and contrary affairs.
- When preparing to tell stories at a campfire, I like to set aside a pile of pine logs with lots of knots , since they burn brighter and make dramatic pops and cracks.
- Jeremy had a knot on his head where he had bumped it on the bedframe.
- With lips serenely placid, felt the knot / Climb in her throat.
- the knot of the tale
- his ancient knot of dangerous adversaries
- As they sat together in small, separate knots , they discussed doctrinal and metaphysical points of belief.
- He pushed through knots of whalemen grouped with their families and friends, and surrounded by piles of luggage.
- with nuptial knot
- ere we knit the knot that can never be loosed
Verb
(knott)- We knotted the ends of the rope to keep it from unravelling.
- as tight as I could knot the noose
- She knotted her brow in concentration while attempting to unravel the tangled strands.
- (Francis Bacon)
Synonyms
* (form into a knot) bind, tie * (form wrinkles in forehead) knitAntonyms
* (form into a knot) loosen, unbind, unknot, untieSee also
* * braid * bruise * hickey * knit * loop * plait * tangle * tie * weaveEtymology 2
From the practice of counting the number of knots in the log-line (as it plays out) in a standard time. Traditionally spaced at one every 1/120th of a mile.Noun
(en noun)- Cedric claimed his old yacht could make 12 knots .
See also
*Etymology 3
Supposed to be derived from the name of (King Canute), with whom the bird was a favourite article of food. See the species epithet canutus .Noun
(en-noun)See also
* (Red Knot)Anagrams
* ----swell
English
Verb
- Monarchs to behold the swelling scene!
- Rains and dissolving snow swell the rivers in spring.
- It is low ebb with his accuser when such peccadilloes are put to swell the charge.
citation, passage=For this scene, a large number of supers are engaged, and in order to further swell the crowd, practically all the available stage hands have to ‘walk on’ dressed in various coloured dominoes, and all wearing masks.}}
Protests Widen as Brazilians Chide Leaders," New York Times (retrieved 21 June 2013):
- After a harsh police crackdown last week fueled anger and swelled protests, President Dilma Rousseff, a former guerrilla who was imprisoned under the dictatorship and has now become the target of pointed criticism herself, tried to appease dissenters by embracing their cause on Tuesday.
- The organ music swelled .
- to be swelled with pride or haughtiness
- Here he comes, swelling like a turkey cock.
- You swell at the tartan, as the bull is said to do at scarlet.
- Your equal mind yet swells not into state.
- swelling''' words; a '''swelling style
- A cask swells in the middle.
Noun
(en noun)- the swell and subsidence of his periods
- There was a great, smooth swell upon the sea.
The Mirror and the Lamp, passage=He was thinking; but the glory of the song, the swell from the great organ, the clustered lights, […], the height and vastness of this noble fane, its antiquity and its strength—all these things seemed to have their part as causes of the thrilling emotion that accompanied his thoughts.}}
- Off on the crest of a swell a moving figure was seen now and then. "Antelope," said the hunters.
- It costs him no more to wear all his ornaments about his distinguished person than to leave them at home. If you can be a swell at a cheap rate, why not?
- He was dressed in a flashy style, not unlike what is popularly denominated a swell .
- "I am not in Mr Crosbie's confidence. He is in the General Committee Office, I know; and, I believe, has pretty nearly the management of the whole of it." . . .
- "I'll tell you what he is, Bell; Mr Crosbie is a swell'." And Lilian Dale was right; Mr Crosbie was a ' swell .
- You buy a lot of Indian or halfbreed loafers with beaver-skins and rum, go to the Mount of the Burning Arrows, and these fellows dance round you and call you one of the lost race, the Mighty Men of the Kimash Hills. And they'll do that while the rum lasts. Meanwhile you get to think yourself a devil of a swell —you and the gods!
Synonyms
* (person dressed in a fancy or elegant manner) dandy, dude, toff * (person of high social standing) toffDerived terms
* ground swell, groundswell * upswell * wind swellAdjective
(en-adj)- Orgasms are swell , but they are not the remedy to every injustice.