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A Knobbly Monster is a journalistic device, a kind of convoluted paraphrase used because the writer felt using the same word twice running is bad style.

The example Knobbly Monsters are named after was (allegedly†) in a piece about a crocodile (or perhaps an alligator, it seems unclear) in which writer having used up "crocodile" and "large reptile" and a few other near synonyms finally, in desperation, wrote "knobby monster". 

BBC Home collected some fine examples [1]. Here's a few of my favourites; can you work out what they refer to? Answers at end.

There's also a good Guardian article [2] discussing POVs (Popular Orange Vegetables, the plant equivalents of Knobbly Monsters), which points out that most of the time it's better to use a pronoun. For instance, instead of

"Yesterday's rush hour witnessed a dragon hovering over Trafalgar Square. The fearsome fire-breathing scaly beast first appeared at about 8 am..."

we should write

"Yesterday's rush hour witnessed a dragon hovering over Trafalgar Square. It first appeared at about 8 am..."

† PS did you know someone who alleges something can be called an allegator?

Answers to quiz

References

[1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/lancashire/fun_stuff/2004/09/07/monsters.shtml

[2] https://www.theguardian.com/media/mind-your-language/2010/jun/02/my-synonym-hell-mind-your-language?guni=Article:in%20body%20link

My thanks also go to the popular YouTube channel Words Unravelled, which first introduced me to the joy of Knobbly Monsters.