From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishknightknight1 /naɪt/ ●○○ noun [countable] 1 HIGH POSITION OR RANKa man with a high rank in the past who was trained to fight while riding a horse knights in armour → white knight2 HIGH POSITION OR RANKa man who has received a knighthood and has the title sir before his name3 DGOthe chess piece with a horse’s head on it4 → a knight in shining armour
Examples from the Corpus
knight• They dream of a great castle called Camelot and a round table that could seat 150 knights.• Besides, away from their home base, knights were useless on their own.• A black knight appeared, as though out of profound shadow, on the surface of the ultimately narrow board.• My sister has enough knights strewn across history to re-enact Agincourt.• Pete lifted his knight but changed his mind and put it back on the board.• He sent waggon-loads of treasure and a great entourage of knights to Saragossa with requests for a formal reconciliation.• Henry I's knights at Tinchebrai in 1106 also dismounted, owing to the nature of the battlefield.• Once he brought another famous theatrical knight on the pillion.knightknight2 verb [transitive] HIGH POSITION OR RANKto give someone the rank of knight→ See Verb tableExamples from the Corpus
knight• In 1596 Crosse was a vice-admiral at the capture of Cadiz, where he was knighted.• He was knighted by Cromwell in 1657 and was buried 20 August 1659.• The castle was built by the first Lord Scrope who fought at Crecy and was knighted for his efforts.• He gave her stolen jewels and she knighted him.• He was promoted to lieutenant-colonel in 1930 and brigadier in 1933, and he was knighted in 1937.• That regulator, James McKinnon, was knighted on 1 January and kicked in the teeth on 15 January.Origin knight1 Old English cniht 