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.
Those "knobbly and misshapen potatoes" however are absolutely fine to eat, she said.
From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2026
They would feel just like a sticker, while patches with a silicon-based chip always feel knobbly.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 24, 2024
Kyle Kuzma sat in a knobbly, cropped black sweater after the game — the sartorial opposite of the oversized pink number memorialized on his bobblehead.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 15, 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
Each eye of the potato she held had knobbly, pale growth on it.
From "Homecoming" by Cynthia Voigt
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