| Library / English Dictionary |
KNAVE
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
One of four face cards in a deck bearing a picture of a young prince
Synonyms:
jack; knave
Classified under:
Nouns denoting man-made objects
Hypernyms ("knave" is a kind of...):
court card; face card; picture card (one of the twelve cards in a deck bearing a picture of a face)
Sense 2
Meaning:
A deceitful and unreliable scoundrel
Synonyms:
knave; rapscallion; rascal; rogue; scalawag; scallywag; varlet
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("knave" is a kind of...):
scoundrel; villain (a wicked or evil person; someone who does evil deliberately)
Context examples:
It would have been in vain to represent to such a man as the Worshipful Mr. Creakle, that Twenty Seven and Twenty Eight were perfectly consistent and unchanged; that exactly what they were then, they had always been; that the hypocritical knaves were just the subjects to make that sort of profession in such a place; that they knew its market-value at least as well as we did, in the immediate service it would do them when they were expatriated; in a word, that it was a rotten, hollow, painfully suggestive piece of business altogether.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
Knave! my dogs shall be set upon you; but, meanwhile, stand out of my path, and stop me at your peril!
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
It was a terrible world thought he, and it was hard to know which were the most to be dreaded, the knaves or the men of the law.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
The knaves led them from the stables, but fled without them.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Marry come up! if I were Peter the fuller's wife I would teach him better than to give his clothes to the first knave who asks for them.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
By the honor of your mother, I pray you to stand by me and to make this knave loose me.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
“How, you foul knave?” exclaimed Sir Nigel hotly.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
“Base-born and foul-mouthed knave!” cried the sompnour.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
“By the black rood of Waltham!” he roared, “if any knave among you lays a finger-end upon the edge of my gown, I will crush his skull like a filbert!”
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
By St. Paul! it is not they who carry the breach who are wont to sack the town, but the laggard knaves who come crowding in when a way has been cleared for them.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
