Definition of "pine knot" [pine knot]

• A joint of pine wood used for fuel (noun)

WordNet. Princeton University. 2010.

• "I have been told by an inhabitant of Tyngsborough, who had the story from his ancestors, that one of these captives, when the Indians were about to upsethis barrel of turpentine, seized a pine knot and flourishing it, swore so resolutely that he would kill the first who touched it, that they refrained, and when at length he returned from Canada he found it still standing."
• "Ignominiously beaten, Richard rose to kindle a pine knot in Stephen’s fire."