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Definition of "knave" []

  • An unprincipled, crafty fellow. (noun)
  • A male servant. (noun)
  • A man of humble birth. (noun)
  • Games See jack. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "knave" in a sentence
  • "I am but a fool, look you; and yet I have the wit to think my master is a kind of a knave: but that's all one, if he be but one knave] [W: but one kind] This alteration is acute and specious, yet I know not whether, in Shakespeare's language, _one knave_ may not signify a _knave on only one occasion_,"
  • ""Romeo and Juliet," the chorus narrates, "His name was Geoffrey Lebowski called yet/Not called, excepting by his kin/That which we call a knave by any other name/Might bowl just as sweet.""
  • "A tattered knave arrived at this dressing-room, deposited his thirty sous and selected, according to the part which he wished to play, the costume which suited him, and on descending the stairs once more, the knave was a somebody."