Meaning & use
knuckle duster
Last updated
Meaning
nouncountable
A metal weapon worn over the fingers and used to make a punch hit harder.
Grammar: Takes a: a knuckle duster; plural knuckle dusters.
Patterns
- carry a knuckle duster
- armed with a knuckle duster
Police found a knuckle duster in the suspect's coat.
Carrying a knuckle duster is against the law in many countries.
The museum displayed a knuckle duster from the 1800s.
Word forms
| plural | knuckle dusters |
|---|
Common combinations
- carry a knuckle duster
- He was arrested for carrying a knuckle duster.
- armed with a knuckle duster
- The attacker was armed with a knuckle duster.
- brass knuckle duster
- A brass knuckle duster lay in the evidence box.
- ban knuckle dusters
- The law bans knuckle dusters and similar weapons.
Synonyms and how they differ
- brass knuckles
- Is the usual American term for the same weapon.
- cosh
- Is a short club or bludgeon, a different kind of hand weapon.
- truncheon
- Is a police baton, not worn on the fingers.
Word family
Commonly confused: knuckle duster or duster?
knuckle duster vs duster
A duster is usually a cloth or brush for cleaning dust; in knuckle duster the word refers to hitting.
Practice
The police said the man had been carrying a knuckle duster. What was it?
Choose one answer.
A knuckle duster is a metal weapon worn on the hand. The cleaning cloth is a tempting reading of duster but is wrong here.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “knuckle duster”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.