knit

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   make (textiles) by knitting

   knit a scarf

2. 2
   verb

   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

3. 3
   verb

   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.

4. 4
   verb

   To join closely and firmly together.

   The fight for survival knitted the men closely together.

5. 5
   verb

   To grow together.

   All those seedlings knitted into a kaleidoscopic border.

6. 6
   verb

   To combine from various elements.

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

7. 7
   verb

   To heal following a fracture.

   I’ll go skiing again after my bones knit.

8. 8
   verb

   To form into a knot, or into knots; to tie together, as cord; to fasten by tying.

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

Etymology

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.