Knubbled

Part of speech: adjective, verb

Definitions

1. Covered with small rounded lumps or knobs, giving a bumpy and uneven texture to the surface
2. Having a rough, knotted appearance with little protuberances scattered across an otherwise uneven outline
3. Marked by small bulges or nubs, so that the surface feels lumpy rather than smooth to the touch

Etymology: "Knubbled" is simply "knubble" with the past-participle or adjectival ending "-ed" added. "Knubble" is itself a verb, so "knubbled" describes something that has been made knobbly or lumpy, and in its adjectival use, something that already has that rough, knotted surface. The base word belongs to the same family of lumpy-shape words as "knub" and "knob," which share the sense of a small rounded protrusion. The -ed ending does the same job here that it does in "knotted" or "bumped": it turns an action or a state into a description of how a thing looks. Because the root is a small, concrete image of a bump, the adjective stays closely tied to physical texture, so you will most often see it used of bark, stone, fruit, or hand-made objects with irregular knobs scattered over them.