knickte

Knickte is the simple past tense form of the German verb knicken, which means to bend, crease, or snap. In narrative and other past-tense contexts, knickte is used with singular subjects, as in ich knickte, er knickte, or sie knickte. The corresponding past participle is geknickt, used with auxiliary haben to form the perfect tense (er hat geknickt). The verb can describe physical bending, such as a branch or a beam giving way, as well as figurative failures or faltering, for example a voice that knickte with emotion or a plan that knickte under pressure.

Etymology and form. The verb knicken derives from the German root knick, meaning bend or kink, and has forms that align with other Germanic verbs for bending. Knickte follows the regular preterite conjugation for a weak verb in German, with the stem knick- plus the ending -te for the first and third person singular in the preterite.

Usage notes. Knickte is a verb form and not a noun. The related noun Knick denotes a bend or kink, and geknickt is used as the past participle to describe something that has been bent or damaged. In modern German, geknickt is common in describing physical damage or compromised conditions, while knickte appears in past-tense constructions and narrative realism.

See also. Knicken, geknickt, Knick. For linguistic context, knick is related to the broader Germanic vocabulary around bending and deformation.