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Knocking   /nˈɑkɪŋ/   Listen
verb
Knock  v. t.  
1.
To strike with something hard or heavy; to move by striking; to drive (a thing) against something; as, to knock a ball with a bat; to knock the head against a post; to knock a lamp off the table. "When heroes knock their knotty heads together."
2.
To strike for admittance; to rap upon, as a door. "Master, knock the door hard."
3.
To impress strongly or forcibly; to astonish; to move to admiration or applause. (Slang, Eng.)
4.
To criticise; to find fault with; to disparage. "Don't knock it if you haven't tried it."
To knock in the head, or To knock on the head, to stun or kill by a blow upon the head; hence, to put am end to; to defeat, as a scheme or project; to frustrate; to quash. (Colloq.) To knock off.
(a)
To force off by a blow or by beating.
(b)
To assign to a bidder at an auction, by a blow on the counter.
(c)
To leave off (work, etc.). (Colloq.) To knock out, to force out by a blow or by blows; as, to knock out the brains.
To knock up.
(a)
To arouse by knocking.
(b)
To beat or tire out; to fatigue till unable to do more; as, the men were entirely knocked up. (Colloq.) "The day being exceedingly hot, the want of food had knocked up my followers."
(c)
(Bookbinding) To make even at the edges, or to shape into book form, as printed sheets.
(d)
To make pregnant. Often used in passive, "she got knocked up". (vulgar)



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."



noun
Knocking  n.  A beating; a rap; a series of raps. "The... repeated knockings of the head upon the ground by the Chinese worshiper."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Knocking" Quotes from Famous Books



... when Howard had forced the issue and gained concessions, it was too late. The old grievances remained in too many minds. To hate the Cardews bad become a habit. Their past sins would damn them now. The strike was wrong, a wicked thing. It was without reason and without aim. The men were knocking a hole in the ...
— A Poor Wise Man • Mary Roberts Rinehart

... emergency. The Emperor, in one of his slashing dictated declarations which hit home with every biting sentence, reminds the Governor again what the inevitable result will be should indecorous liberty be taken. Sir Thomas would be made aware of this danger, so contents himself by knocking at the door and shouting at the top of his voice: "Come out, Napoleon Bonaparte. We want ...
— The Tragedy of St. Helena • Walter Runciman

... being persecuted by commercial zealots in the United States. And even in the house of its friends, coffee was being stabbed in the back. The coffee merchants themselves presented the spectacle of "knocking" it ...
— All About Coffee • William H. Ukers

... in moments of great peril; so, now, knocking away the under fastenings of the boat by main force, the crew managed at last to get it free. Then, improvising rollers out of pieces of the broken topmast, they contrived by pulling and hauling and shoving, all working with a will together, to launch ...
— Teddy - The Story of a Little Pickle • J. C. Hutcheson

... way. As for that youth, Clement Lindsay, if he had not taken himself off as he did, Murray Bradshaw confessed to himself that he should have felt uneasy. He was too good-looking, and too clever a young fellow to have knocking about among fragile susceptibilities. But on reflection he saw there ...
— The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (The Physician and Poet not the Jurist)


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