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Gnarled

//nɑː(ɹ)ld// adj, verb

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Knotty and misshapen.

    "Three chairs of the steamer type, all maimed, comprised the furniture of this roof-garden, with […] on one of the copings a row of four red clay flower-pots filled with sun-baked dust from which gnarled and rusty stalks thrust themselves up like withered elfin limbs."

  2. 2
    Made rough by age or hard work.
Adjective
  1. 1
    used of old persons or old trees; covered with knobs or knots wordnet
Verb
  1. 1
    simple past and past participle of gnarl (Etymology 1) form-of, participle, past
  2. 2
    simple past and past participle of gnarl (Etymology 2) form-of, participle, past

Etymology

Etymology 1

First attested Shakespeare 1603: : Thy sharpe and sulpherous bolt Splits the vn-wedgable [unwedgable] and gnarled Oke [oak]. : Measure for Measure, Act II, scene ii, line 116 Variant of knurled, from knurl. By surface analysis, gnarl + -ed, though gnarl is a later back-formation. Popular use by 19th century.

Etymology 2

First attested Shakespeare 1603: : Thy sharpe and sulpherous bolt Splits the vn-wedgable [unwedgable] and gnarled Oke [oak]. : Measure for Measure, Act II, scene ii, line 116 Variant of knurled, from knurl. By surface analysis, gnarl + -ed, though gnarl is a later back-formation. Popular use by 19th century.

Etymology 3

See gnarl (Etymology 2).

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