knuckle under

verb

knuckled under; knuckling under; knuckles under

Examples of knuckle under in a Sentence

encouraged her to stand firm and not knuckle under to political pressure the remote outpost was overrun and forced to knuckle under
Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Of course, Cruz knuckled under a little while later. James Hohmann, Washington Post, 9 July 2024 Miraculously, however, it is told in the voice of a musician, Rainy, a man who refuses to knuckle under and whose tones remain kind and more hopeful than despairing. Katherine A. Powers, Washington Post, 22 June 2024 Biden is all too willing to knuckle under both to the environmentalists who want to stop any new conventional-energy development and to the labor bosses who don’t want to see the ports modernized and automated, which might eat into their discretionary funds. The Editors, National Review, 23 June 2022 Please do not knuckle under. Abigail Van Buren, oregonlive, 25 Oct. 2021 His determination to hold on to his dignity, to not knuckle under, marked a pathway for our family to move forward, to expand on what he’d not been allowed to do. Deborah Johnson, The Christian Science Monitor, 13 Feb. 2023 As noted in this space in 2015, the company required participants in its Times Journeys program — pricey overseas trips guided by Times journalists — to knuckle under to an arbitration clause. Erik Wemple, Washington Post, 24 Dec. 2022 Europe’s governing parties can’t knuckle under to Russian blackmail and retain their democratic viability. Holman W. Jenkins, WSJ, 30 Aug. 2022 His bile aimed at the Sulzberger family stems above all from the paper’s coverage and criticism of him, its refusal to knuckle under. David Remnick, The New Yorker, 21 Dec. 2021

Word History

First Known Use

1869, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of knuckle under was in 1869

Dictionary Entries Near knuckle under

Cite this Entry

“Knuckle under.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/knuckle%20under. Accessed 13 Dec. 2024.

Kids Definition

knuckle under

verb
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