knit brow

knit (one's) brow(s)

To furrow one's brow, often due to worry or confusion. Whenever there was a problem, my dad would sit in his favorite chair, knit his brow for a while, and then announce that he had a plan. When I asked Bill about what happened, and he knit his brows, I knew I was about to hear some bad news.
See also: knit
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

knit one's brow

to cause one's brow to wrinkle. Bob knitted his brow when he was confused. Jane knitted her brow because she was angry.
See also: brow, knit
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
See also:
  • knit
  • knit (one's) brow(s)
  • knit your brows
  • knitting
  • knit (one's) eyebrows
  • sweat of brow
  • the sweat of (one's) brow
  • brow
  • by the sweat of (one's) brow
  • by the sweat of your brow
References in classic literature
Robert Darzac, with knit brow, was beginning to show impatience.
The table had been spread with substantial eatables nearly two hours before he presented himself-- a tall, stout man of sixty, with a face in which the knit brow and rather hard glance seemed contradicted by the slack and feeble mouth.
To this speech the other answered not a word, but he pushed the cowl back from his head and showed a knit brow, a hooked nose, and a pair of fierce, restless black eyes, which altogether made Robin think of a hawk as he looked on his face.
At these words Guy of Gisbourne looked upon Robin with knit brows, but, as the yeoman still looked innocent of any ill meaning, he bottled his words and strung his bow in silence.
His chin fell upon his breast, while his eyes rolled wildly from under his knit brows, in every direction, upon those who hemmed him in.
On the other side of the wall there were the two brothers so like each other in the midst of their unlikeness: Adam with knit brows, shaggy hair, and dark vigorous colour, absorbed in his "figuring"; Seth, with large rugged features, the close copy of his brother's, but with thin, wavy, brown hair and blue dreamy eyes, as often as not looking vaguely out of the window instead of at his book, although it was a newly bought book--Wesley's abridgment of Madame Guyon's life, which was full of wonder and interest for him.
But Ajax came up with his shield like wall before him, on which Hector withdrew under shelter of his men, and sprang on to his chariot, giving the armour over to the Trojans to take to the city, as a great trophy for himself; Ajax, therefore, covered the body of Patroclus with his broad shield and bestrode him; as a lion stands over his whelps if hunters have come upon him in a forest when he is with his little ones--in the pride and fierceness of his strength he draws his knit brows down till they cover his eyes--even so did Ajax bestride the body of Patroclus, and by his side stood Menelaus son of Atreus, nursing great sorrow in his heart.
Since returning from my time studying abroad, my answer to the question, "So where did you go again?" almost always draws a knit brow. Despite the fact that the initial reaction to its name is the hearer trying to unearth eighth-grade world geography knowledge, Tartu is a city rich with cultural and literary interest, contemporary as well as historical.
A triad of bureaucrats has reason to knit brow. The president of the ethics committee of the Congress, Salvador Pineda, said, "We have three cases pending, they are ready to introduce on the floor, but upon ratification of the repeal of immunity there would be no object in submitting them because charges could be brought directly."
With his pensively knit brow and long, swinging trench coat, Amendola looks rather sacrificed in the fired cop role, where all the emotion is kept inside.
Forced to jettison the trademark smirk, he's left with knit brow and perpetual scowl.
Within minutes they'd formed a mass around Forcefield and were either listening with knit brows or furiously head-banging.