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Glite Dictionary
🦴 A small bone 🎲 A tossing game
knucklebone

knucklebone

1 8.8
A small bone from an animal joint used as a simple die in games
  • noun
  • /ˈnʌkəlˌboʊn/
translation icon : hueso de la articulación
  • He gave Hugh two sheep's knucklebones that would be excellent for gambling, and had fair SHAME OF MAN 145 p145.

Valla meaning knucklebone, surter meaning black, sour meaning mud, rasta meaning brawler, Gary meaning ravener, and garmer meaning rags.

Examples

  • She used to play with the knucklebones of a slaughtered pig.

    Fiction book (1994)

  • Like the knucklebones.

    Fiction book (1994)

  • I glanced at Ellie and saw that she was clutching her hands together -- from across the room, they might have appeared to be folded in the attitude of prayer, but I could see that the ends of her fingers were flushed where they pushed on the knucklebones of the opposite hand.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • Children often played jacks with knucklebones during recess.

  • At the fair, she watched a group of kids playing a game with knucklebones.

  • In ancient Greece, people used knucklebones as dice for their games of chance.

Synonyms

anklebone
vsknucklebone
1 4.0

A bone in the ankle that connects the leg to the foot

is smaller and commonly used in traditional games rather than only for the joint
tali
vsknucklebone
  • Specialized
9.9

Small ankle bones once used as dice in old games

is a small joint bone often used for traditional games rather than just anatomy

Surface Forms

knucklebone singular
knucklebones plural

Morphology

knucklebone = knuckle + bone (transparent) = knuckle + bone

The compound directly denotes a bone associated with a knuckle; meaning is a literal combination of its parts.

Etymology

Knucklebone comes from the two words knuckle and bone, and knuckle means 'joint', because people used a small joint bone as a game piece or a simple die.