How to Use knuckle in a Sentence

knuckle

1 of 2 noun
  • She rapped her knuckles on the table.
  • Janey held a knuckle to her mouth.
    — Literary Hub, 7 Aug. 2025
  • His knuckles were raw white, all tense and clasped on his knees.
    — Literary Hub, 3 Oct. 2025
  • The skin on his knuckles and toes had been shredded off.
    — Ariane Lange, Sacbee.com, 13 Nov. 2025
  • Those first few shows were pretty white knuckle.
    — Jason P. Frank, Vulture, 18 June 2026
  • Soak beans overnight with enough water to go up to the first knuckle.
    — Karla Alindahao, Forbes, 24 Jan. 2023
  • Your dry elbows and cracked knuckles don’t stand a chance.
    — Adam Hurly, Robb Report, 8 May 2026
  • This is chess boxing, where knuckle meets nerd.
    — Heather Abbott, CBS News, 17 Nov. 2025
  • His knuckles were open and bleeding, bursts of red smeared on his thighs.
    — Hazlitt, 14 June 2023
  • My knuckles whitened against the steering wheel.
    — MSNBC Newsweek, 24 Sep. 2025
  • That’s hurting your knuckles, says the hater.
    — Sarah Lindenfeld Hall, Popular Science, 7 Jan. 2026
  • Hays rubbed her knuckles against the girl’s sternum, then checked her pulse.
    — Maggie Prosser, Dallas News, 14 Sep. 2023
  • But there’s still damage, right around the base of thumb, at the knuckle.
    — Chris Fedor, cleveland, 7 Jan. 2023
  • The skin around her nose and eyes was red and flaky, her knuckles and fingers white and blotchy.
    — Ann Larson, Time, 11 June 2026
  • England have rapped Stokes on the knuckles.
    — Nasser Hussain, New York Times, 23 June 2026
  • Drain lobster and remove meat from the tail, claws and knuckles.
    — Kathryn Gregory, Louisville Courier Journal, 14 Oct. 2025
  • The patient’s knuckles went white in her fist above her forehead.
    — Amy Pedulla, STAT, 14 Dec. 2023
  • Jordan clenched the cup so tightly her knuckles turned white.
    — Literary Hub, 12 May 2026
  • There wasn’t takeout rice, or eggs, or even a last little knuckle of parm.
    — Sonia Chopra, Bon Appétit, 8 July 2021
  • Of course, not everybody can crack their knuckles.
    — Sarah Lindenfeld Hall, Popular Science, 7 Jan. 2026
  • Get ‘er done, get ‘er done quick, and rest up for the bare knuckle brawl that’s looming in the next round.
    — Corey Masisak, Denver Post, 18 Apr. 2026
  • Took his knuckles to his face and pounded over and over until bruises formed.
    — Amy Kaufman, Los Angeles Times, 4 June 2023
  • On his story, Travis shared a picture of the front of his knuckles.
    — Esme Mazzeo, Peoplemag, 4 Jan. 2024
  • Contestants either shot from the hip or with their knuckles to the ground.
    — Mike Klingaman, Baltimore Sun, 16 May 2023
  • One complained about his wife while his friend lamented a callus on his knuckle.
    — Peggy O’Hare, San Antonio Express-News, 7 Jan. 2023
  • That particular shot seemed to have a lot of hang time, and a bit of a knuckle to it.
    — Steve Smith, courant.com, 23 Dec. 2021
  • Their front feet rested on their knuckles, while the hind legs bore down on the outer edge of the broad feet.
    — John Metcalfe, Mercury News, 18 Mar. 2026
  • Go ahead and crack those knuckles and limber up the fingertips.
    — Roderick Boone, Charlotte Observer, 24 Jan. 2024
  • The next three photos show his swollen knuckle and a brace holding the ring finger in place.
    — Katie Atkinson, Billboard, 27 Feb. 2023
  • On Casie's finger, a little black heart could be seen inked near her knuckle.
    — Hannah Sacks, PEOPLE, 15 Sep. 2025

knuckle

2 of 2 verb
  • Hold the weight in your right hand and raise that arm straight overhead, knuckles up.
    — Christa Sgobba, SELF, 18 Oct. 2024
  • His paws began to knuckle and his back legs weakened.
    — Tereza Shkurtaj, PEOPLE, 2 Nov. 2025
  • So far, Green has said nothing so bare-knuckled, at least in public.
    — George Russell, Fox News, 9 Mar. 2018
  • Put your social agenda on the back burner and knuckle down to honor your obligations.
    — Jeraldine Saunders, The Mercury News, 13 May 2017
  • Judging from their hands, arms, backs, hips and legs, these European apes didn’t knuckle-walk like a chimpanzee.
    — Jeremy Desilva, Scientific American, 1 Nov. 2022
  • Even so, for anxious fliers, the odds do little to quell nerves, and moderate turbulence leads to white-knuckling the arm rests.
    — Tyler Moss, CNT, 6 July 2017
  • Farther back, there are bald cypress trees, root systems knuckling their way out of the mud, and rowboats passing through the bayou.
    — Zachary Fine, The New York Review of Books, 8 Feb. 2020
  • But what about snow biking, snowmobiling, and knuckle hucking?
    — Jenny McCoy, SELF, 23 Jan. 2019
  • Paramore capped off its sophomore album and commercial breakthrough with this white-knuckled, berserker sprint through stardom and back.
    — Billboard Staff, Billboard, 22 Nov. 2017
  • White-knuckling through intersections, cursing the Waze app for directing you to turn left.
    — Dan Labbe, cleveland, 29 Jan. 2020
  • Outside his window, the azure waters of the Pacific knuckled on the white sands of Malibu.
    — Jeff Stein, Newsweek, 31 Jan. 2018
  • Jaedyn Shaw’s quick gather-and-strike from 21 yards knuckled a few feet above the ground toward the frame’s lower right corner.
    — Tom Krasovic, San Diego Union-Tribune, 14 Apr. 2023
  • Before purchasing the pumpkin, rap on it with you knuckle in several spots to ensure there aren’t any soft spots, which indicate rot.
    — Joseph Truini, Popular Mechanics, 26 Oct. 2022
  • Griezmann's shot from about 25 yards away knuckled away from Muslera at the last moment and the ball went off his hands and into the goal in the 61st minute.
    — Pete Grathoff, kansascity, 6 July 2018
  • Also, despite what your grandmother says, there isn't any conclusive evidence on risk of arthritis tied to knuckle cracking.
    — Ashley May, USA TODAY, 30 Mar. 2018
  • Oregon State had a chance to counter just over a minute later, but Jordan Choukair’s 52-yard field goal attempt knuckled to the left.
    — oregonlive, 8 Sep. 2019
  • State after state punted on the opportunity to become the first to regulate before Wyoming, well, knuckled up.
    — Josh Peter, USA TODAY, 4 June 2018
  • The prosecutors tore up the language and the law trying to prove that the senator was knuckling the guy who was eagerly purchasing his influence with both hands.
    — Charles P. Pierce, Esquire, 13 Sep. 2017
  • Patients aren’t strapped to a hospital bed, white-knuckling it through withdrawal; instead, they are gradually weaned off the drugs outside the hospital over the course of months.
    — Lindsay Beyerstein, The New Republic, 10 Mar. 2020
  • Our camp sat on a small peninsula that knuckled up from the southeastern shore of a seventy-mile-long lake that on maps is called Contwoyto, though this is not a Tłıc̨hǫ word.
    — Literary Hub, 15 Dec. 2025
  • There’s her character Maia, an overachieving perfectionist who is white knuckling her way through her career despite few connections and a boss who is not all that concerned with her upward mobility.
    — Katie Campione, Deadline, 2 Nov. 2025
  • But the underdog story, produced by Jordan Peele, also shows a bunch of new sides to Patel, who knuckles up as a legit action star and a guy who can make a movie that’s totally cool, occasionally amusing and impressively thoughtful.
    — Brian Truitt, USA TODAY, 4 Apr. 2024
  • By forging alliances with friendly venues, the Jazz Mafia has knuckled their way into two Bay Area residencies, playing monthly at Oakland’s Sound Room and North Beach’s Keys Jazz Bistro.
    — Randy McMullen, Mercury News, 27 Feb. 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'knuckle.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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