English

A gnarled tree trunk.

Noun

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.
3. (mathematics) The average value of the magnitude squared of the curl of a vector field over a continuous path that is tangent to the vector field at every point. In mathematical notation, gnarl is represented by the lowercase Greek letter ξ.

Derived terms

• gnarly

Translations

Verb

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

1. (transitive) To knot or twist something.

Translations

Etymology 2

Onomatopoeia

Verb

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

1. (intransitive) To snarl or growl; to gnar.
   • Shakespeare

     And wolves are gnarling who shall gnaw thee first.

Translations

References

1. ↑ “gnarled” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary (2001).