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Knock about   /nɑk əbˈaʊt/   Listen
verb
Knock  v. i.  (past & past part. knocked; pres. part. knocking)  
1.
To drive or be driven against something; to strike against something; to clash; as, one heavy body knocks against another.
2.
To strike or beat with something hard or heavy; to rap; as, to knock with a club; to knock on the door. "For harbor at a thousand doors they knocked." "Seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you."
3.
To practice evil speaking or fault-finding; to criticize habitually or captiously. (Slang, U. S.)
To knock about, to go about, taking knocks or rough usage; to wander about; to saunter. (Colloq.) "Knocking about town."
To knock up, to fail of strength; to become wearied or worn out, as with labor; to give out. "The horses were beginning to knock up under the fatigue of such severe service."
To knock off, to cease, as from work; to desist.
To knock under, to yield; to submit; to acknowledge one's self conquered; an expression probably borrowed from the practice of knocking under the table with the knuckles, when conquered. "Colonel Esmond knocked under to his fate."





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Knock about" Quotes from Famous Books



... Liu speedily remarked laughing, "have cast me adrift; they made me knock about, until I ...
— Hung Lou Meng, Book II • Cao Xueqin
... I went into the most abominable company because it amused me and I had only myself to please, and I saw what a fearfully tense grip the monster, Drink, has taken of this nation; and let me say that you cannot understand that one little bit, if you are content to knock about with a policeman and squint at signboards. Well, I want to know how these legislators can go to church and repeat certain prayers, while they continue to make profit by retailing Death at so much a gallon; and I want to know how some scores of other godly men go out of their way ...
— The Ethics of Drink and Other Social Questions - Joints In Our Social Armour • James Runciman
... most up-to-date naval constructor. She had been built to the order of Mr Julius Vansittart, the multi-millionaire engineer and steel magnate, as a birthday present to his wife. Mrs Vansittart's passion was yachting, and she was wont to knock about New York Bay, the Hudson River, and Long Island Sound, with occasional adventurous stretches down the coast as far as Delaware Bay, or even to Baltimore, in a sturdy little ten-ton sloop, the while she studied seamanship and navigation and Mr ...
— The First Mate - The Story of a Strange Cruise • Harry Collingwood


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