From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Node Node (n[=o]d), n. [L. nodus; perh. akin to E. knot. Cf. Noose, Nowed.] 1. A knot, a knob; a protuberance; a swelling. [1913 Webster] 2. Specifically: (a) (Astron.) One of the two points where the orbit of a planet, or comet, intersects the ecliptic, or the orbit of a satellite intersects the plane of the orbit of its primary. (b) (Bot.) The joint of a stem, or the part where a leaf or several leaves are inserted. (c) (Dialing) A hole in the gnomon of a dial, through which passes the ray of light which marks the hour of the day, the parallels of the sun's declination, his place in the ecliptic, etc. (d) (Geom.) The point at which a curve crosses itself, being a double point of the curve. See Crunode, and Acnode. (e) (Mech.) The point at which the lines of a funicular machine meet from different angular directions; -- called also knot. --W. R. Johnson. (f) (Poet.) The knot, intrigue, or plot of a piece. (g) (Med.) A hard concretion or incrustation which forms upon bones attacked with rheumatism, gout, or syphilis; sometimes also, a swelling in the neighborhood of a joint. --Dunglison. (h) (Mus) One of the fixed points of a sonorous string, when it vibrates by aliquot parts, and produces the harmonic tones; nodal line or point. (i) (Zool.) A swelling. [1913 Webster] 3. (Math., Computers) A special point in a graph or diagram which is attached to other points by links. It is often labeled and represented graphically as a box or circle. A node may represent any object which is related to other objects in a conceptual structure that can be represented as a graph, the relations being represented as links between the nodes. [PJC] 4. (Anat.) A small mass of tissue differing from other tissue in its immediate vicinity; as, a lymph node. [PJC] Ascending node (Astron.), the node at which the body is passing northerly, marked with the symbol [astascending], called the Dragon's head. Called also northern node. Descending node, the node at which the body is moving southwardly, marked thus [astdescending], called Dragon's tail. Line of nodes, a straight line joining the two nodes of an orbit. [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Knot Knot (n[o^]t), n. [OE. knot, knotte, AS. cnotta; akin to D. knot, OHG. chnodo, chnoto, G. knoten, Icel. kn[=u]tr, Sw. knut, Dan. knude, and perh. to L. nodus. Cf. Knout, Knit.] 1. (a) A fastening together of the parts or ends of one or more threads, cords, ropes, etc., by any one of various ways of tying or entangling. (b) A lump or loop formed in a thread, cord, rope. etc., as at the end, by tying or interweaving it upon itself. (c) An ornamental tie, as of a ribbon. [1913 Webster] Note: The names of knots vary according to the manner of their making, or the use for which they are intended; as, dowknot, reef knot, stopper knot, diamond knot, etc. [1913 Webster] 2. A bond of union; a connection; a tie. "With nuptial knot." --Shak. [1913 Webster] Ere we knit the knot that can never be loosed. --Bp. Hall. [1913 Webster] 3. Something not easily solved; an intricacy; a difficulty; a perplexity; a problem. [1913 Webster] Knots worthy of solution. --Cowper. [1913 Webster] A man shall be perplexed with knots, and problems of business, and contrary affairs. --South. [1913 Webster] 4. A figure the lines of which are interlaced or intricately interwoven, as in embroidery, gardening, etc. "Garden knots." --Bacon. [1913 Webster] Flowers worthy of paradise, which, not nice art In beds and curious knots, but nature boon Poured forth profuse on hill, and dale, and plain. --Milton. [1913 Webster] 5. A cluster of persons or things; a collection; a group; a hand; a clique; as, a knot of politicians. "Knots of talk." --Tennyson. [1913 Webster] His ancient knot of dangerous adversaries. --Shak. [1913 Webster] Palms in cluster, knots of Paradise. --Tennyson. [1913 Webster] As they sat together in small, separate knots, they discussed doctrinal and metaphysical points of belief. --Sir W. Scott. [1913 Webster] 6. A portion of a branch of a tree that forms a mass of woody fiber running at an angle with the grain of the main stock and making a hard place in the timber. A loose knot is generally the remains of a dead branch of a tree covered by later woody growth. [1913 Webster] 7. A knob, lump, swelling, or protuberance. [1913 Webster] With lips serenely placid, felt the knot Climb in her throat. --Tennyson. [1913 Webster] 8. A protuberant joint in a plant. [1913 Webster] 9. The point on which the action of a story depends; the gist of a matter. [Obs.] [1913 Webster] I shoulde to the knotte condescend, And maken of her walking soon an end. --Chaucer. [1913 Webster] 10. (Mech.) See Node. [1913 Webster] 11. (Naut.) (a) A division of the log line, serving to measure the rate of the vessel's motion. Each knot on the line bears the same proportion to a mile that thirty seconds do to an hour. The number of knots which run off from the reel in half a minute, therefore, shows the number of miles the vessel sails in an hour. Hence: (b) A nautical mile, or 6080.27 feet; as, when a ship goes nautical eight miles an hour, her speed is said to be eight knots. [1913 Webster] 12. A kind of epaulet. See Shoulder knot. [1913 Webster] 13. (Zool.) A sandpiper (Tringa canutus), found in the northern parts of all the continents, in summer. It is grayish or ashy above, with the rump and upper tail coverts white, barred with dusky. The lower parts are pale brown, with the flanks and under tail coverts white. When fat it is prized by epicures. Called also dunne. [1913 Webster] Note: The name is said to be derived from King Canute, this bird being a favorite article of food with him. [1913 Webster] The knot that called was Canutus' bird of old, Of that great king of Danes his name that still doth hold, His appetite to please that far and near was sought. --Drayton. [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Knot Knot, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Knotted; p. pr. & vb. n. Knotting.] 1. To tie in or with, or form into, a knot or knots; to form a knot on, as a rope; to entangle. "Knotted curls." --Drayton. [1913 Webster] As tight as I could knot the noose. --Tennyson. [1913 Webster] 2. To unite closely; to knit together. --Bacon. [1913 Webster] 3. To entangle or perplex; to puzzle. [Obs. or R.] [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Knot Knot, v. i. 1. To form knots or joints, as in a cord, a plant, etc.; to become entangled. [1913 Webster] Cut hay when it begins to knot. --Mortimer. [1913 Webster] 2. To knit knots for fringe or trimming. [1913 Webster] 3. To copulate; -- said of toads. [R.] --Shak. [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0:

knot n 1: a tight cluster of people or things; "a small knot of women listened to his sermon" 2: any of various fastenings formed by looping and tying a rope (or cord) upon itself or to another rope or to another object 3: a hard cross-grained round piece of wood in a board where a branch emerged; "the saw buckled when it hit a knot" 4: something twisted and tight and swollen; "their muscles stood out in knots"; "the old man's fists were two great gnarls"; "his stomach was in knots" [syn: gnarl] 5: a unit of length used in navigation; equivalent to the distance spanned by one minute of arc in latitude; 1,852 meters [syn: nautical mile, mile, mi, naut mi, international nautical mile, air mile] 6: soft lump or unevenness in a yarn; either an imperfection or created by design [syn: slub, burl] 7: a sandpiper that breeds in the arctic and winters in the southern hemisphere [syn: grayback, Calidris canutus] v 1: make into knots; make knots out of; "She knotted der fingers" 2: tie or fasten into a knot; "knot the shoelaces" 3: tangle or complicate; "a ravelled story" [syn: ravel, tangle] [ant: unravel, unravel] [also: knotting, knotted]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

460 Moby Thesaurus words for "knot": Blackwall hitch, Chinese puzzle, Flemish knot, French shroud knot, German knot, Gordian knot, Matthew Walker knot, Rube Goldberg contraption, Windsor knot, accouple, accumulate, adhesive, affix, affixation, agglutinate, aggregation, air speed, amass, amount to, anamorphism, anamorphosis, anchor knot, annexation, articulate, assemblage, assemble, associate, asymmetry, attach, attachment, baffling problem, balance, ball, ball up, balloon, band, batch, becket knot, bend, bilge, bind, binding, bladder, blain, bleb, blister, blob, block, body, boll, bolus, bond, boss, bow, bowknot, bowline, bracket, braid, brain twister, break even, bridge, bridge over, bubble, buckle, bulb, bulbil, bulblet, bulge, bulla, bump, bun, bunch, burl, button, cahot, cake, can of worms, celerity, cement, chain, chignon, chine, clabber, clap together, clasping, clinch, clot, clump, cluster, coagulate, cocker, cockle, coil, collect, collection, combine, come to, come up to, company, complex, complicate, comprise, concatenate, concrete, concretion, condyle, confound, confuse, congeal, conglobulate, conglomerate, conglomeration, congregation, conjoin, conjugate, connect, contort, contortion, convex, copse, copulate, correspond, corrugate, couple, cover, crease, crimp, crimple, crinkle, crook, crookedness, crop, crossword puzzle, crowd, crumple, crux, cue, curd, curdle, detorsion, deviation, diamond knot, dilemma, dispatch, disproportion, distort, distortion, ditto, double hitch, dowel, draw, ear, ellipsoid, embrace, embrangle, encompass, enigma, enigmatic question, entangle, even, even off, expedition, fasten, fastener, fastening, fastness, fix, flange, flap, flat knot, flight, flit, floorer, flurry, foul up, furrow, gall, gang, gather, gathering, gel, gelatinate, gelatinize, geoid, girding, globe, globelet, globoid, globule, glomerulus, glue, gnarl, gob, gobbet, granny knot, ground speed, group, grouping, groupment, grove, half crown, half hitch, handle, hassock, haste, hawser bend, hawser fastening, heaving-line bend, hill, hooking, hump, hunch, hurry, imbalance, implicate, include, incrassate, inside clinch, inspissate, instantaneousness, involve, irregularity, jell, jellify, jelly, jigsaw puzzle, jog, joggle, join, jungle, keep pace with, knit, knob, knots, knotty point, knur, knurl, labyrinth, lanyard knot, lash, lashing, lay together, league, ligament, ligation, ligature, lightning speed, link, lip, loop, lopper, lopsidedness, lot, louse up, lump, lump together, manrope knot, marling hitch, marry, marshal, mass, match, match up with, maze, meander, measure up to, merge, mesh, mesh knot, mess, mess up, miles per hour, mind-boggler, mix up, mobilize, mole, morass, mountain, muck up, muddle, mystery, netting knot, nevus, nexus, node, nodus, nonplus, nub, nubbin, nubble, nut to crack, oblate spheroid, open hand knot, orb, orbit, orblet, outside clinch, oxymoron, pair, papilloma, paradox, parallel, peg, pellet, perplex, perplexed question, perplexity, piece together, pigtail, plait, pons asinorum, poser, precipitation, problem, prolate spheroid, prolonge knot, promptitude, promptness, pucker, purse, put together, puzzle, puzzlement, puzzler, quandary, question, question mark, queue, quickness, quirk, ramify, rapidity, rattail, ravel, reach, reef knot, reeving-line bend, rib, ridge, rimple, ring, ripple, rival, roll into one, rolling hitches, rondure, rope-yarn knot, round pace, round seizing, rpm, ruck, ruckle, rumple, run abreast, run to, running knot, rush, screw, screw up, secure, set, sheepshank, shirr, shock, shock wave, shoulder, shroud knot, single knot, sixty-four dollar question, skein, slew, slide knot, slipknot, snafu, snake pit, snappiness, snarl, snarl up, solder, solid, solid body, sonic barrier, sonic boom, sound barrier, span, speed, speed of sound, speediness, sphere, spheroid, spherule, spine, splice, spring, square knot, stack up with, stick together, sticker, sticking, stook, stud, stumper, style, swift rate, swiftness, tab, tail, take in, tangle, tangled skein, tape, teaser, tether, thick, thicken, thicket, throng, tie, tieing, timber knot, topknot, torsion, tortuosity, touch, tough proposition, tubercle, tubercule, tuft, turn, turn awry, tussock, twist, unify, unite, unsymmetry, velocity, verruca, vesicle, vexed question, vinculum, wale, wall knot, warp, wart, web, webwork, weld, welt, wheels within wheels, why, wilderness, wimple, wisp, wrench, wrest, wring, wrinkle, writhe, yoke, zipping