gnarl

• IPA^(key): /nɑː(ɹ)l/
• Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)l

• Audio (Southern England)

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Back-formation from gnarled.[1]

gnarl (plural gnarls)

1. A knot in wood; a large or hard knot, or a protuberance with twisted grain, on a tree.
2. Something resembling a knot in wood, such as in stone or limbs.

• gnarly

gnarl (third-person singular simple present gnarls, present participle gnarling, simple past and past participle gnarled)

1. (transitive) To knot or twist something.

gnarl

1. Gnarled, knotty, twisted.

Onomatopoeic.

gnarl (third-person singular simple present gnarls, present participle gnarling, simple past and past participle gnarled)

1. (intransitive) To snarl or growl; to gnar.
   • 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:

     And wolves are gnarling who shall gnaw thee first.