gnarl

This word usually brings to mind old wood: roots, branches, or hands that look twisted, knotted, and rough from age or hard use. To gnarl something is to twist it into knots or make it uneven and tangled. As a noun, a gnarl can also be a knot or hard lump in wood.

There is also a rarer older sense connected with sound: to gnarl can mean to growl or snarl. Most of the time, though, the word is used for things with a twisted, knotted look.

To gnarl something is to twist it, knot it up, or make it rough and uneven. The word is strongly tied to wood and plants. Old roots can gnarl around rocks, branches can gnarl as a tree ages, and a board can show a gnarl where the grain forms a hard knot. That is why the word often suggests age, pressure, and a shape formed slowly over time.

You will often meet this idea through the form "gnarled." A tree may have gnarled branches, and a person's hands may look gnarled after many years of hard work. In these uses, the picture is physical and vivid: not smooth or straight, but bent, knotted, and worn by life.

As a noun, a gnarl is a knot, knob, or twisted lump, especially in wood. There is also an older and much less common verb sense meaning to growl or snarl. In modern English, though, the main meaning stays close to the image of twisted wood and other things that have become knotted, bent, and rough.