Find the word definition

Crossword clues for knack

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
knack
noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
uncanny
▪ But like most of his colleagues in Hampden Babylon he had an uncanny knack of pushing the self-destruct button.
▪ He had a deep knowledge of the habits of all the local wildlife and an uncanny knack of befriending them.
▪ Keanu Reeves plays a criminal defense attorney who has an uncanny knack for picking sympathetic jurors.
▪ As some one said ... him and Strach had an uncanny knack of supporting each other when needed.
■ VERB
get
▪ It may take time for you to get the knack.
▪ You got to have the knack.
▪ Once you have got the knack of this you can do it anywhere, whenever you need it.
▪ With a little more coaching he might get the knack.
lose
▪ Basically, I just seem to have lost the knack with men.
▪ And his six goals in his four games while on loan to Coventry City have shown he has not lost his knack.
▪ He seems to have lost the knack when he most needed it, for he was stoned to death by unimpressed heathens.
▪ Mr Barre's brutality has made him plenty of enemies, and recently he has lost his knack for balancing the clans.
make
▪ But he had the unhappy knack of making enemies in the party.
▪ As ever, the knack is to make yourself stand out from the corporate crowd.
▪ It has the knack of making the usual unusual, the ordinary extraordinary, the commonplace special.
▪ He had found in school that he didn't seem to have the knack of making himself come.
▪ He had perfected the knack of making one really last, for which he was known and hated by several West-End barmen.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Knack

Knack \Knack\, n.

  1. A petty contrivance; a toy; a plaything; a knickknack.

    A knack, a toy, a trick, a baby's cap.
    --Shak.

  2. A readiness in performance; aptness at doing a specific task; skill; aptitude; facility; dexterity; -- often used with for; as, a knack for playing the guitar.

    The fellow . . . has not the knack with his shears.
    --B. Jonson.

    The dean was famous in his time, And had a kind of knack at rhyme.
    --Swift.

  3. Something performed, or to be done, requiring aptness and dexterity; a trick; a device. ``The knacks of japers.''
    --Chaucer.

    For how should equal colors do the knack !
    --Pope.

Knack

Knack \Knack\ (n[a^]k), v. i. [Prob. of imitative origin; cf. G. knacken to break, Dan. knage to crack, and E. knock.]

  1. To crack; to make a sharp, abrupt noise to chink. [Obs. or Prov. Eng.]
    --Bp. Hall.

  2. To speak affectedly. [Prov. Eng.]
    --Halliwell.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
knack

mid-14c., "deception, trick, device," of uncertain origin, probably from a Low German word meaning "a sharp sounding blow" (compare Middle English knak, late 14c.; German knacken "to crack"), of imitative origin. Sense of "special skill" is first recorded 1580s, if this is in fact the same word. In old slang (mid-18c.-mid-19c.) nacky meant "full of knacks; ingenious, dexterous."

Wiktionary
knack

n. A readiness in performance; aptness at doing something; skill; facility; dexterity. vb. 1 (context obsolete UK dialect English) To crack; to make a sharp, abrupt noise; to chink. 2 To speak affectedly.

WordNet
knack

n. a special way of doing something; "he had a bent for it"; "he had a special knack for getting into trouble"; "he couldn't get the hang of it" [syn: bent, hang]

Wikipedia
Knäck

Knäck is a traditional Swedish toffee prepared at Christmas. The name translates into "break" and refers to its hard consistency (reminiscent of Daim or Skor bars). Some prefer their knäck to be soft and chewy, which is easily attainable by simmering the mix for a shorter time.

Knack (magazine)

Knack is a Belgian ( Flemish) weekly news magazine covering local news, politics, sports, business, jobs, and community events.

Knack

Knack or The Knack may refer to:

  • Knack (magazine), a Belgian news magazine
  • The Knack, an American pop-rock band
  • "The Knack" (Dilbert episode), an episode of the TV series Dilbert
  • The Knack ...and How to Get It, a 1965 British film
  • Knack Productions, a Japanese animation studio that created the series The Adventures of the Little Prince and others
  • Knack (video game), a launch title developed by SCE Japan Studio for the Sony PlayStation 4
  • Knack Online Database Tools, online database & web app builder
Knack (video game)

Knack is a platforming beat 'em up video game developed by SCE Japan Studio and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 4 video game console. The game was released in November 2013 and in Japan in February 2014, where it was available as a bundle with the console.

The player navigates the titular character Knack through a series of levels viewed in a fixed camera, third-person-style view. Knack is a living humanoid organism that consists of Relics; a large central Relic is always surrounded by a varying amount of smaller Relics. Knack utilizes crystal relic powers, jumping, dodging, stealth and punching, in order to progress through the colourful environments, which are populated with enemies. The story follows Knack and his creator on a journey to save humankind from a species known as the Goblins. However, one of Knack's creator's former friends goes rogue. Knack and his allies must stop the antagonist's evil plans.

Upon release, Knack was met with a mixed critical response; reviewers praised the game's original concept and ideas, but criticized the gameplay and story.

Usage examples of "knack".

I have the knack of putting an end to an intrigue when it has ceased to amuse me, I have no hesitation in accepting your proposal.

He effectively excluded them beche wished to be taught by us, not volunteers- and as Dan had told me those many months ago, Stuart had an uncanny knack for getting to a person.

A hard worker with a knack for persuading or coercing those who worked under him into being the same, he had been made overseer within a year.

It was a knack Devall had inherited, increasing his worth three-fold since gaining the title.

Your lads are fine in a donnybrook, but none of them has the knack for sniffing around and finding out things.

The question was whether, like his departed chief, he lacked the knack of taking decisive action at the proper moment.

She did not want to experiment cycling near the village until she felt she had remastered the knack.

A low risker himself, he had a rare and endearing knack of treating everyone, low and middle risk, with the same degree of courtesy and friendliness.

I think they have a knack of swelling out, till they are quite as unmanageable as great ones.

Ed Bloom has had an amazing knack at seeing the unobvious in the past.

He was a naturally aggressive and overbearing man but Kaft had the knack of making him feel adolescent and unruly.

The squad leader remembered that Wilson had taken weeks to get used to talking on the radio and made a mental note that Perdue seemed to have a knack for it.

Insidious but necessary is the whorish knack a journalist must develop of suiting his pitch to the particular client.

It was an unusual experience, for she had always had the knack for getting women to open up, but Kitty was closed to the subject of what had gone on at the Albany courthouse.

There was a stratagem nicely calculated to get the best from the Castalia Invincibles, Caudell thought- but then, Lewis had always had that knack.