knock-me-down

English

Pronunciation

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Noun

knock-me-down (uncountable)

1. (slang, now rare) A strong alcoholic drink.
   • 1982, T. C. Boyle, Water Music, Penguin, published 2006, page 34:

     His mother didn't have the price of a bed, and so she crept into the outbuilding, the labor pains coming like blows to the groin, a bottle of clear white Knock-Me-Down clutched in her fist.

Related terms

• knockdown (strong ale or beer)

Adjective

knock-me-down (comparative more knock-me-down, superlative most knock-me-down)

1. Overbearing; overpowering.
   • 1792, Jane Austen, ‘Lesley Castle’, Juvenilia:

     ‘I never can think such tremendous, knock-me-down figures in the least degree elegant […] .’

   • 1922, James Joyce, Ulysses:

     And Bloom, of course, with his knockmedown cigar putting on swank with his lardy face.