knock out
English
Pronunciation
Audio (AU): (file)
Verb
knock out (third-person singular simple present knocks out, present participle knocking out, simple past and past participle knocked out)
- (transitive) To strike or bump (someone or something) out.
- I accidentally knocked out the glass in my picture frame.
- (transitive, idiomatic) To render unconscious, as by a blow to the head.
- The boxer knocked out his opponent in the third round.
- 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 22, in The Mirror and the Lamp:
- In the autumn there was a row at some cement works about the unskilled labour men. A union had just been started for them and all but a few joined. One of these blacklegs was laid for by a picket and knocked out of time.
- (transitive, idiomatic) To put to sleep.
- The allergy pill knocked him out for a good three hours.
- (transitive, idiomatic) To exhaust.
- Running errands all day really knocked him out.
- (transitive, idiomatic) To complete, especially in haste; knock off.
- They knocked out the entire project in one night.
- (transitive, idiomatic) To cause a mechanism to become non-functional by damaging or destroying it.
- The antitank gun knocked out the enemy tank.
- (sports) To eliminate.
- 2011 December 15, Marc Higginson, “Shamrock Rovers 0-4 Tottenham”, in BBC Sport:
- Tottenham were knocked out of the Europa League, despite a comfortable victory over Shamrock Rovers in Dublin.
- (transitive) To communicate (a message) by knocking.
- The prisoner knocked out a message on the wall for the prisoner in the adjoining cell.
- To lose the scent of hounds in fox-hunting.
- (obsolete, Oxford University slang) To leave college after hours—after half-past ten at night when the doors has been locked.
- 1861, Thomas Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxford, London: Macmillan and Co., published 1883, page 503:
- "Hullo!" he said, getting up; "time for me to knock out, or old Copas will be in bed. […] "
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
strike or bump something out
render someone unconscious
to put to sleep
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