''knead'' ▫ᴱᴺ Entries

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''knead'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260320113731-00-⌔

knead - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Verb

knead (third-person singular simple present kneads, present participle kneading, simple pastkneaded or (obsolete) knead, past participlekneaded or (obsolete) knead or (archaic) kneaden or (obsolete) knodden)

• (transitive) To work and press into a mass, usually with the hands; especially, to work, as by repeated pressure with the knuckles, into a well mixed mass, the materials of bread, cake, etc.
  • ✤ * Knead the dough by pressing down on it with the heels of both your palms and pushing it forward to stretch it, then pulling it back toward you…*¹
• (transitive, figuratively) To treat or form as if by kneading; to beat.
  • ✤ I will knead him: I’ll make him supple.²
• (intransitive, felinology) Of cats, to make an alternating pressing motion with the two front paws.
  • ✤ Cats knead with their paws when happy, just as they kneaded when feeding from their mothers as kittens.³
  • ✤ One of the most characteristic things that cats do is ” knead,” pushing their paws alternately against any invitingly soft area of their human friends’ bodies like a baker kneading dough.⁴
  • ✤ Why do cats knead? When kittens are nursing, they knead against their mothers’bellies to draw out milk. A relaxed adult cat kneads your leg or a couch cushion to show that he’s happy and content, as he was when he was a nursing baby.⁵
• (transitive) To mix thoroughly; form into a homogeneous compound.

Noun

knead (plural kneads)

• The act of kneading something.
  • ✤ Do not expect the dough to be very manageable even after a good knead.⁶

Verb

knead

• (obsolete) simple past and past participle of knead

Etymology 1

From Middle English kneden, from Old English cnedan, from Proto-West Germanic ﹡knedan, from Proto-Germanic ﹡knudaną, from Proto-Indo-European ﹡gnet- (“to press together”).

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) enPR: nēd, IPA: /niːd/
  • Audio (US): 🔊
• (Early Modern) IPA: /knɛːd/
• Rhymes: -iːd
• Homophones: kneed, need

Etymology 2

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) enPR: nēd, IPA: /nɛd/
• Rhymes: -ɛd
• Homophones: ned, Ned

Printed 2026-06-28.

(echo:: @ ⌗)

Footnotes

1. 2001, Özcan Ozan, Carl Tremblay, The Sultan’s Kitchen: A Turkish Cookbook: ↩

2. c. 1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii]: ↩

3. 1991, Grace McHattie, That’s cats!: a compendium of feline facts: ↩

4. 2001, John C. Wright, Judi Wright Lashnits, Ain’t Misbehavin’, Rodale, →ISBN, page 44: ↩

5. 2012, Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Cat Lover’s Companion ‎${}^{[1]}$, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN: ↩

6. 2011, Andrew Whitley, Bread Matters: ↩

Link to original

Secondary

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