Meaning

noun originally a person of noble birth trained to arms and chivalry; today in Great Britain a person honored by the sovereign for personal merit

noun a chessman shaped to resemble the head of a horse; can move two squares horizontally and one vertically (or vice versa)

verb raise (someone) to knighthood

originFrom Middle English knight, knyght, kniht, from Old English cniht (“boy; servant, knight”), from Proto-West Germanic *kneht.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0