832 K N G 
1668 nominated him one of his privy council, and after¬ 
wards gave him the appointment of his chancellor. The 
duties of thefe offices, however, did not divert him from 
his literary, chemical, and myftical, purfuits. He tranf- 
iated into German, fir Thomas Brown’s Enquiry into vul¬ 
gar Errours; and various other pieces. But his reputation 
is chiefly derived from a work entitled Kabbala Dcnudata, 
3 vols. 4-to; the firlt and fecond of w'hich were publifhed 
at Sultzbach in 1677, and the third, which is very fcarce, 
at Frankfort in 1684. This work abounds in wild reve¬ 
ries, fanciful chimeras, and myftical abfurdities ; but con¬ 
tains, at the fame time, very learned and valuable re- 
fearches relative to the philofophy of the Hebrews, and 
particularly the rabbinical philofophy. The time of his 
death is not known. 
KNOT, /. [cnofcta, Sax. knot, Germ, knutle, Dut. 
knotte, Erfe.] A complication of a cord or firing not ea- 
fily to be difentangled : 
Tir’d with the walk, (lie laid her down to reft; 
And to the winds expos’d her glowing bread, 
To talce the freflinefs of the morning air; 
And gather'd in a knot her flowing hair. Addifon. 
Any figure of which the lines frequently inferfedl each 
other.—Their quarters are contrived into elegant knots, 
adorned with the mod: beautiful flowers. More. 
Henry, in knots involving Emma’s name, 
Had half-exprefs’d and half-conceal’d his flame. Prior. 
Any bond of afiociation or union.—Confirm that amity 
with nuptial knot. Shakefpeare. 
I would he had continued to his country 
As he began, and not unknit himfelf 
The noble knot he made. Shake/p. Coriclanus. 
... * 
A joint in an herb. A hard part in a piece of wood 
caufed by the protuberance of a bough, and confequently 
by a tranfverfe diredtion of the fibres.—Taking the very 
refufeamong thofe which ferved to no ufe, being a crooked 
piece of wood, and full of knots, he hath carved it dili¬ 
gently, when he had nothing elfe to do. Wifd. —Difficul¬ 
ty ; intricacy.—A man fliall be perplexed with knots and 
problems of buiinefs, and contrary affairs, where the de¬ 
termination is dubious, and both parts of the contrariety 
•feem equally weighty ; l'o that, which way foever the choice 
determines, a man is fure to venture a great concern. 
South's Sermons. —Any intrigue, or difficult perplexity of 
affairs.—When the difcovery was made that the king 
■was living, which was the knot of the .play untied, the relt 
is (hut up in the cornpafs of fome few lines. Drydcn's Du- 
frejnoy. —A confederacy ; an afiociation ; a fmall band.— 
O you panderly rafcals ! there’s a knot, a gang, a con- 
fpiracy againft me. Shake/. Merry Wives. 
What is there here in Rome that can delight thee? 
Where not a foul, without thine own foul knot, 
But fears and hates thee. Ben Jon/on's Cataline, 
A clufter ; a collection.—The way of fortune is like the 
milky way in the fky, which is a meeting or knot of a 
number of fmall ftars, not feen afunder, but giving light 
together. Bacon's EJfays. —In a picture, befides the princi¬ 
pal figures which compofe it, and are placed in the midft 
of it, there are lefs groups or knots of figures difpofed at 
proper difiances, which are parts of the piece, and feem 
to carry on the fame defigti in a more inferior manner. 
Dry den. 
Knot, in gardening, a term ufed to exprefs the rudi¬ 
ments of thefirft branches of plants, as they grow up from 
the feed. Thus, in the melon, the two firft leaves or feed- 
leaves are called the ears, and the branches that grow from 
them are called, according to the order of their growth, 
the firft, fecond, and third, knots. Mr. Quintiny’s famous 
method of-raifing the beft melons, depended principally on 
the cutting oft’ every third knot of the plant as they grew 
Up. Phil. Tranf. N° 45. In trees, the knot denotes that 
part from whence it lhoots out branches, roots, or even 
K N O 
fruit. The wood is harder and defer-in the knots than in 
any other part, but it is alld more fubjett to fplit there. 
The ufe of the knots of plants is to lfrengthen the Item : 
they ferve alfo as fearces to filtrate., purify, and refine, the 
juice raifed up for the nouriihment of the plant. 
Knot, Order of, at Naples. See the article Knight¬ 
hood, p. 810 of this volume. 
Knot, in military language, the wing or_epaulette, 
commonly made of worfted, of a non-commifiioned offi¬ 
cer or corporal. When ferjeants and corporals are fen- 
tenced to be reduced to the ranks, the knot is generally 
cut off by the drum-major, in the prefence of the batta¬ 
lion, as a mark of infamy. 
Knot, on-board a (hip, is a large knob formed on the 
extremity of a rope, by untwifting the end's thereof, and 
interweaving them regularly amongft each other. The 
knots are generally ufed to faften one rope to another, by 
means cf a fmall cord attached to the neck of the knot, 
called the laniard, which is firmly tied about both ropes. 
They are alfo defigned to prevent the end of a rope from 
Aiding through an eye, which the knot is intended to 
confine in a particular fituation. 
There are divers forts of knots ufed for different pur- 
pofes, whiclrcan only be explained by (howing the figures 
of them open, or undrawn. Thus: fig. 1, in the annexed 
Plate, is a thumb.knot. This is the fimpleft of all. It is 
ufed to tie at the end of a rope, to prevent its opening 
out: it is alfo ufed by tailors, See. at the end of their 
thread. Fig. 2, a loop-knot. Ufed to join pieces of rope 
See. together. Fig. 3, a draw-knot, which is the fame as 
the laft; only one end or both return the fame way back, 
as abed. By drawing at a, the part bed comes through, 
and the knot is loofed. Fig. 4, a ring-knot. This ferves 
alfo to join pieces of cord. See. together. Fig. 5, is an¬ 
other knot for tying cords together. This is u(ed when 
any cord is often to be loofed. Fig. 6, a running-knot, to 
draw any thing dole. By pulling at the end a, the cord 
is drawn through the loop b, and the part cd is drawn 
clofe about a beam, See. Fig. 7 is a knot to tie any¬ 
thing to a poll. And here the end may be put through 
as often as you pleafe. Fig. 8, the fneep-Jkank knot. A 
thumb-knot is firft made at the end of each piece, and 
then the end of the other it pafled through it. Thus, the 
cord ac runs through the loop d, and bd through c; and 
then drawn clofe by pulling at a and b. If the ends e and 
f be drawn, the knot will be loofed again. Fig. 9, a 
Ji/her's knot, or water-knot. This is the lame as the 4th, 
only the ends are to be put twice through the ring, which 
in the former was but once; and then drawn dole. Fig. 
10, a mejhing-knot, for nets ; and is to be drawn clofe. Fig. 
ix, a barber's knot, or a knot for cawls of wigs ; and is to 
be drawn clofe. Fig. 12, a bowline-knot. When this is 
drawn clofe, it makes a loop that will not (lip, as fig. 7 ; 
and ferves to hitch over any thing. Fig. 13, a wale-knot, 
which is made with the three ftrands of a rope, fo that it 
cannot flip. When the rope is put though a hole, this 
knot keeps it from flipping through. When the three 
ftrands are wrought round once or twice more, after the 
fame manner, it is called crowning. By this means the 
knot is made larger and ftronger. 
Knots mean aifo the divifions of the log line, ufed at 
fea. Thefe are dually 7 fathom, or 42 feet, afunder; but 
fliould be 8^ fathom, or 50 feet. And then, as many knots 
as.the long line runs cut in half a minute, fo many miles 
does the lhip fail in an hour; fuppefing her to keep going 
as an equal rate, and allowing for yaws, leeway, &c. 
KNOT, f. [See Knat.] A bird : 
My foot-boy (nail eat pheafants, calver’d falmons, 
Knots, godwits, lampreys. B. Johnfon's Alckemijl. 
To KNOT, v.a. To complicate in knots: 
Happy we who from fuch queens are freed. 
That were always telling beads : 
But here’s a queen when (he rides abroad 
Is always knotting threads. Sedlcy.. 
3 To 
