KNEE of the Head, a large, flat piece of timber, fixed edgewise upon the fore part of a ship's stem, and supporting the ornamental figure or image placed under the bowsprit.
The knee of the head is a phrase peculiar to shipwrights, as this piece is always called the cut-water by seamen, if we except a few, who, affecting to be wiser than their brethren, have adopted this expression, probably on the presumption that the other is a cant phrase or vulgarism.