nook

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English

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Etymology

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From Middle English noke, nok (“nook, corner, angle”), of uncertain origin. Perhaps from Old English hnoc, hnocc (“hook, angle”), from Proto-Germanic *hnukkaz, *hnukkô (“a bend”), from Proto-Indo-European *knewg- (“to turn, press”), from Proto-Indo-European *ken- (“to pinch, press, bend”).

If so, then also related to Scots nok (“small hook”), Norwegian dialectal nok, nokke (“hook, angle, bent object”), Danish nok (“hook”), Swedish nock (“ridge”), Faroese nokki (“crook”), Icelandic hnokki (“hook”), Dutch nok (“ridge”) or Dutch hoek (“corner”), Low German Nocke (“tip”), Old Norse hnúka (“to bend, crouch”), Old English ġehnycned (“drawn, pinched, wrinkled”). Also cognate with Scots neuk, nuk (“corner, angle of a square, angular object”).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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nook (plural nooks)

  1. A small corner formed by two walls; an alcove.
    Synonyms: alcove, ancona, recess
    There was a small broom for sweeping ash kept in the nook between the fireplace bricks and the wall.
  2. A hidden or secluded spot; a secluded retreat.
    The back of the used book shop was one of her favorite nooks; she could read for hours and no one would bother her or pester her to buy.
  3. A recess, cove or hollow.
    Synonym: niche
  4. (historical) An English unit of land area, originally 1⁄4 of a yardland but later 12+1⁄2 or 20 acres.
    Synonym: fardel
    • a. 1634, W. Noye, The Complete Lawyer, section 57:
      You must note, that two Fardells of Land make a Nooke of Land, and two Nookes make halfe a Yard of Land.
    • 1903, English Dialectical Dictionary, volume IV, page 295:
      Nook, an old legal term for 12+1⁄2 acres of land; still in use at Alston.
    • 1968 November 9, The Economist, page 2:
      They poured their wine by the aume or the fust, and cut their cloth by the goad—not to be confused with the gawd, which was a measure of steel. Their nook was not cosy; it covered 20 acres.
  6. (chiefly Northern England, archaic) A corner of a piece of land; an angled piece of land, especially one extending into other land.
    • 1777, Joseph Nicolson, Richard Burn, “[Appendix.] No. XXVIII. Penrith Boundary on the Side of Caterlen.”, in The History and Antiquities of the Counties of Westmorland and Cumberland. [...] In Two Volumes, volume II, London: Printed for W[illiam] Strahan; and T[homas] Cadell, […], →OCLC, pages 546–547:
      The ancient bounds of the cow paſture of Penrith, [...] and then from the ſaid Old Dyke end, alongſt Plumpton Dyke Eaſt over Petterel unto Plumpton park nuke, otherwiſe called Plumpton nuke; [...]
    • 1827, John Hodgson, “Morpeth Deanery”, in A History of Northumberland, in Three Parts, part II, volume I, Newcastle upon Tyne: Printed by Edw[ard] Walker, for J[ohn] B[owyer] Nichols, [et al.], →OCLC, footnote b, page 2:
      The bounder beginneth at the east nuke of the Carter, and from thence extendeth eastward upon the height of the edge to Robscleugh Score, and from thence to Phillip's cross, so to the Spittopnuke, from thence to Greenlaw, so to the height of the Brown Hartlaw, and from thence along the high street to the nuke of the Blakelaw, and from thence to Hemmier's Well, where Ridsdale and Cookdale meet, all weh is a bounder against Scotland.
  7. (Should we delete(+) this sense?) (Homestuck fandom slang, vulgar) The vagina-like genitalia of a troll, featured in Homestuck fanworks but not in canon.
    Coordinate term: tentabulge
    • 2012 April 29, lucretiasgf (@furiosasgf), Twitter‎[1]:
      i NEEEEEEEED A NICE BIG HIGH8LOODED 8ULGE UP MY NOOK THIS SECOND!
    • 2012 December 22, Harveh (@TemporalHipster), Twitter‎[2]:
      Vriska is too trashy to shave her nook.
    • 2019 April 10, @jashindamnit, Twitter‎[3]:
      the vriska i roleplay specifically just has a nook because i like drawin vaginas.
    • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:nook.

Alternative forms

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  • (corner of a piece of land): nuke

Hypernyms

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Hyponyms

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  • (unit of area): See fardel (1⁄2 nook), see acre (various fractions & for further subdivisions)

Derived terms

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Translations

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Verb

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nook (third-person singular simple present nooks, present participle nooking, simple past and past participle nooked)

  1. To withdraw into a nook.
    • 1852, Alban: A Tale of the New World, page 248:
      Mrs. Fluent was nooked with their hostess in the corner of another, a retiring woman, remarkably pretty withal, as your ministers' wives generally are, and no wonder, since the ministers, if at all popular, usually have their pick among the young lambs — we mean the young ladies — of their flocks.
    • 1855, Charles Rogers, The modern Scottish minstrel:
      'Tis the marrow of health In the forest to lie, Where, nooking in stealth, They enjoy her supply
    • 1905, Appleton's Magazine - Volume 5, page 847:
      The author of Aunt Jeannie, the play in which Mrs. Patrick Campbell has starred, makes one of his characters say : " Half the time you were nooking with Daisy, the rest with Mrs. Halton.
    • 2014, Alice Clayton, Rusty Nailed, page 251:
      We laughed, we loved, we nooked. And it worked.
  2. To situate in a nook.
    • 1860, Jedediah Vincent Huntington, A Tale of Real Life, Or, Blonde and Brunette, page 8:
      The city of Gotham is an island, as we have said; and once it was a beautiful island, affording to the gaze of him who sailed along its shores, an agreeable mixture of rock and grove, topping hill and marshiy low ground, spakling here and there with the villas or country-houses of the wealthy Gothamites, mostly built of wood painted white, and adorned with long verandahs quite encircling them; or showing at some turn a humbler, but substantial abode, nooked under a mighty horse-chestnut, the headquarters of a milk-farm, with cattle (whose tinkling bells you could hear in the still evening) grazing on its wild up-hilly pasture-land.
    • 2009, Karen Marie Moning, Beyond the Highland Mist:
      Stairs descended to larders, pantries were cleverly nooked into alcoves, and beyond the open windows sprawled lush gardens.
    • 2014, Lois Leveen, Juliet's Nurse, page 233:
      There are yet more hives nooked into the very walls that encircle the city, and tucked in trees that edge the fields beyond the walls.
    • 2018, George de Horne Vaizey, The Lady of the Basement Flat, page 64:
      I think she saw that I was disappointed, and a trifle shy at going alone, so off we went together —Charmion a marvel of unobtrusive elegance in grey, and I "taking the eye” in sapphire-blue—along the breezy lane, past the closed gates of Uplands, through the shuttered High Street into the tiny square, in a corner of which the church was nooked, with the vicarage garden adjoining the churchyard.

References

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  1. ^ “Nook” in John Walker, A Critical Pronouncing Dictionary […] , London: Sold by G. G. J. and J. Robinſon, Paternoſter Row; and T. Cadell, in the Strand, 1791, →OCLC, page 361, column 3.

Anagrams

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