Vertical caving terminology and methods > Knots > Knot construction and behaviour
A knot where the rope wraps around something else, gripping it tightly in order to hold on to it. With vertical caving, most hitches are tied around another rope, or another part of the same rope.
You may see an inaccurate statement written in various places that "a hitch needs an object or another rope to tie it", and "without the object or other rope, it will fall apart". This is not correct at all, no matter which version of English is being used, as several hitches hold their shape when they are not tied around something, such as the half hitch, which is simply an overhand knot tied around something, and the timber hitch, which is a figure of 9 or a different dressing of the Capuchin knot tied around something. The timber hitch, and many of its variations (such as ones based on the figure of 8), even keep their dressing when not tied around something. At the same time, you might see a claim that hitches are not knots because a knot "is self-contained and selfsupporting", and "does not need another object or rope to maintain the integrity of the knot". This relegates a sheepshank into the no-man's land in between, since it is not tied around something, but can fall apart if the object providing tension to the rope is removed (or you just breathe on it too much - it's a very unstable knot, which is why it is not used at all for vertical caving).
The reason for this mistaken understanding is that some American sailors from 1944 might have said that hitches are not knots. They are. We are cavers, and even if we were sailors instead, this page specifically uses British terminology. According to the Collins (British) English dictionary, a knot is "any of various fastenings formed by looping and tying a piece of rope, cord, etc., in upon itself, to another piece of rope, or to another object", and that very explicitly includes bends and hitches. The claim that they are not knots comes from the American made Ashley Book Of Knots, by sailor Clifford Warren Ashley, 1944, page 12; "At sea, the whole subject of knots is commonly divided into four classifications; hitches, bends, knots and splices. [...] The term knot itself is applied particularly to knobs and loops, and to anything not included in the other three classes, such as fancy and trick knots". However, that same text also states that the word knot "in its broadest sense [...] applies to all complications in cordage, except accidental ones such as snarls and kinks, and complications adapted for storage, such as coils, hanks, skeins, balls, etc.". Now even ignoring the fact that most British people would happily call an accidental hair tangle that cannot be undone a knot, this sentence clearly calls a hitch a knot. The Ashley Book Of Knots also states in the same text that the word could instead exclude almost all knots, leaving only the ones used to stop a rope fraying, or to provide a handhold (so the overhand on a bight is not a knot unless you tie it in a knotted handline - what nonsense!).
The same words used in different countries, different contexts and different years can have different meanings. The Oxford English Dictionary states that a knot is in fact "an intertwining of a rope, string, [...] hair, etc., with another, itself, or something else to join or fasten together", clearly including bends and hitches, and goes on to explicitly include "a tangle in hair, knitting, etc.", without requiring them to be intentional. In commonly understood English in Britain, a hair tangle, a hitch, a coil, a bend and a loop knot would all be considered knots, and a sheepshank is a knot, even if it can't hold itself together once the tension is released. We are not all sailors, we are not all Americans, and this is not 1944.
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