Definition of "knight" []

• A medieval tenant giving military service as a mounted man-at-arms to a feudal landholder. (noun)
• A medieval gentleman-soldier, usually high-born, raised by a sovereign to privileged military status after training as a page and squire. (noun)
• A man holding a nonhereditary title conferred by a sovereign in recognition of personal merit or service to the country. (noun)
• A man belonging to an order or brotherhood. (noun)
• A defender, champion, or zealous upholder of a cause or principle. (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.

• ""What!" cried Helen, starting, "you think this knight is the royal Bruce?""
• "The superb disdain with which she met the project frightened these poor people, who were not mistaken in their fears that she was meditating what they called knight-errantry."
• "A 'knight' is a Christian artifact from a Christian culture just as much as a 'Kirtle Friar' is."