Verb
knock out (third-person singular simple present knocks out, present participle knocking out, simple past and past participle knocked out)
- To strike or render unconscious
- (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[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC: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, informal, idiomatic) To put to sleep.
The allergy pill knocked him out for a good three hours.
- (intransitive, informal, idiomatic) To fall asleep, especially suddenly.
2014, D. G. Driver, Cry of the Sea, page 61:That's a put-you-straight-to-sleep book if there ever was one, and I knocked right out after two paragraphs.
- (transitive, informal, idiomatic) To exhaust.
Running errands all day really knocked him out.
- (transitive, informal, idiomatic) To impress, surpass or overwhelm (someone).
- (transitive, slang) To defeat or kill (someone).
- (transitive, idiomatic) To cause a mechanism to become non-functional by damaging or destroying it.
The antitank gun knocked out the enemy tank.
- (transitive) To eliminate from a contest or similar.
1980, InfoWorld, volume 2, number 20:As they were approaching bankruptcy from being knocked out of the calculator market, they began development on the first commercially available microcomputer, the Altair.
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.
- (transitive, informal) To complete, especially in haste; knock off.
They knocked out the entire project in one night.
- 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 have been locked.
- (transitive, Australia) To obtain or earn (something, often money or food).
- (transitive, slang, UK) To sell.
Translations
to strike or bump something out
to render someone unconscious, as by a blow to the head
to fall asleep, especially suddenly
— see also fall asleep
to complete, especially in haste
— see also knock off
to cause a mechanism to become non-functional by damaging or destroying it
to eliminate from a contest or similar
— see also eliminate
to communicate (a message) by knocking
to lose the scent of hounds in fox-hunting