knobbly
Britishadjective
Explanation
If something's lumpy and misshapen, you can describe it as knobbly. Don't throw out those knobbly potatoes from your garden — they're ugly, but they'll taste perfectly fine! If a camper pitches her tent over a bumpy patch of ground, she'll feel all of those knobbly roots and rocks through her sleeping bag later. This adjective, a variation on knobby, comes from knob, "rounded lump or bump." That gnarled oak tree in your yard is knobbly, and so are your little sister's bony knees.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
A knobbly fruit the size of a large avocado, its creamy, sweet flesh tastes a bit like custard - hence the name.
From BBC • May 25, 2026
They would feel just like a sticker, while patches with a silicon-based chip always feel knobbly.
From Science Daily • Apr. 24, 2024
Inside was a diorama featuring models of nine crustaceans, including a coconut crab, usually found on tropical islands; a decorator crab, which covers its body with algae for camouflage; and the knobbly horrid elbow crab.
From New York Times • Dec. 27, 2023
To that end, tactile paving was developed—plates of knobbly bumps that feel different both under the feet and at the end of a white cane.
From Slate • Jan. 29, 2022
It was a lie; he hadn’t bought anything for Dobby at all, 'but he quickly opened his trunk and pulled out a particularly knobbly rolled-up pair of socks.
From "Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire" by J. K. Rowling
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
