8. white knuckle The joints between your fingers and the palm of your hand are called knuckles (the first "k" is silent!)If you hold onto something extremely tightly, your knuckles turn white. So if you "white knuckle" something, it means you survive an extremely stressful experience. For example, if you took a taxi through a dangerous area, and the driver was going very fast and out of control, you would be nervous that the car might crash. Afterwards