- Archaic
- a serving boy or male servant
- a man of humble birth or status
- a dishonest, deceitful person; tricky rascal; rogue
- jack (noun)
Origin of knave
Middle English knaue from Old English cnafa, boy, male child, akin to German knabe
noun
The definition of a knave is a scoundrel or a dishonest person.
A man who steals and lies is an example of a knave.
YourDictionary definition and usage example. Copyright © 2018 by LoveToKnow Corp
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"knave." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 16 January 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/Knave>.
APA Style
knave. (n.d.). Retrieved January 16th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Knave
knave
Webster's New World College Dictionary, Fifth Edition Copyright © 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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MLA Style
"knave." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 16 January 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/Knave>.
APA Style
knave. (n.d.). Retrieved January 16th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Knave
knave
noun
- An unprincipled, crafty fellow.
- a. A male servant.b. A man of humble birth.
- Games See jack.
Origin of knave
Middle English from Old English cnafa boy, male servantRelated Forms:
- knav′ish
adjective
- knav′ish·ly
adverb
- knav′ish·ness
noun
THE AMERICAN HERITAGE® DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, FIFTH EDITION by the Editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries. Copyright © 2016, 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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MLA Style
"knave." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 16 January 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/Knave>.
APA Style
knave. (n.d.). Retrieved January 16th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Knave
Noun
(plural knaves)
Origin
From Middle English knave, from Old English cnafa (“child, boy, youth; servant”), from Proto-Germanic *knabô (“boy, youth”), from Proto-Indo-European *gnebʰ- (“to press, tighten”), from Proto-Indo-European *gen- (“to pinch, squeeze, bend, press together, ball”). Cognate with German Knabe (“lad”) and Dutch knaap (“lad”). Related also to knape.
English Wiktionary. Available under CC-BY-SA license.
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Cite this page
MLA Style
"knave." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 16 January 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/Knave>.
APA Style
knave. (n.d.). Retrieved January 16th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Knave
Sentence Examples
- Knox does not seem to have known beforehand of Rizzio's "slaughter," which had been intended to be a semi-judicial act; but soon after it he records that "that vile knave Davie was justly punished, for abusing of the commonwealth, and for other villainy which we list not to express."
- From the Greek sophists they borrowed ingenious ways of playing off one duty against another, or duty in general against self-interest - leaving the doubter in the alternative of neglecting the one and being a knave, or neglecting the other and being a fool.
- Swift, who was intimate with him, speaks of him as "an arrant knave"; but the dean may have been disappointed at being unmentioned in Rivers's will, for he made a fierce comment on the earl's bequests to his mistresses and his neglect of his friends.
- 1298), to explain, who coolly said that he thought it expedient to wink at one knave cutting off another, " whereat the king smiled and bade him return into Ireland."
- Underlying them were such maxims as that of Hume, that in erecting a stable government every citizen must be assumed a knave, and be bound by self-interest to co-operation for the public good.
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