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Knock out   /nɑk aʊt/   Listen
Knock out

verb
1.
Eliminate.
2.
Knock unconscious or senseless.  Synonyms: kayo, knock cold.
3.
Destroy or break forcefully.
4.
Overwhelm with admiration.
5.
Empty (as of tobacco) by knocking out.






WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University








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"Knock out" Quotes from Famous Books



... taking on their iron flesh. He saw the day of her nativity. He heard them knock out the blocks that lowered the sliding-ways to the groundways and sent her ...
— The Cup of Fury - A Novel of Cities and Shipyards • Rupert Hughes

... requires a period of from eight to ten years to perfect his coiffure." With other nations the head is shaved, and in parts of South America and Africa even the eyebrows and eyelashes are eradicated. The natives of the Upper Nile knock out the four front teeth, saying that they do not wish to resemble brutes. Further south, the Batokas knock out only the two upper incisors, which, as Livingstone (47. 'Travels,' p. 533.) remarks, gives the ...
— The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex • Charles Darwin

... Jake stooped to knock out the ashes of his pipe in the fender. "What I don't know about you, my son," he said, "ain't worth a donkey's bray, I reckon, so you can shut your mouth on that! I'm going back ...
— Charles Rex • Ethel M. Dell

... sculptors and painters care little about it. "It is very fine," we say, "and very useful, this knocking the light out of the sun, or into it, by an eternal cataract of planets. But you may hail away, so, forever, and you will not knock out what we can. Here is a bit of silver, not the size of half-a-crown, on which, with a single hammer stroke, one of us, two thousand and odd years ago, hit out the head of the Apollo of Clazomenas. It is merely a matter of form; but if any of you philosophers, with your whole planetary system ...
— The Ethics of the Dust • John Ruskin

... the tar out of a symphony on the piano, but she can mop the dew off the grass with a burglar, and knock out a dude's eyes ...
— Remarks • Bill Nye

... "There's where you are wanting, Diana. Your hands are good enough, but I wouldn't give much for your eyes. There's where you'd grow poor, if you weren't poor a'ready. Now you didn't know when that pane o' glass was broke. You'd go round and round, and a pane o' glass'd knock out here, and a quart of oil 'ud leak out there, and you'd lose a pound of flour between the sieve and the barrel, and you'd never ...
— Diana • Susan Warner

... Already our better trained men are heading up for Temassinine to the north and Fort Charlet to the east. We'll lose men but we'll knock out every water hole between here and Libya. We'll cut every road, blow ...
— Border, Breed Nor Birth • Dallas McCord Reynolds

... look back." The grocer did so; he saw the two pigs stock-still in the middle of the road. Then he looked over at his horse's heels; it was lame also; the stone took some time to knock out, after he got ...
— The Great Big Treasury of Beatrix Potter • Beatrix Potter

... vineyard—never broke ranks there, either, we were on our good behavior, besides, it was Spring—and so on over to the house, where we drew up, and the mandolins played their piece, then we gave the yell—it was only a few months old, that yell, but it had been loud enough to knock out a twenty-five-year-old one we met up in town not long before, and we ...
— Stanford Stories - Tales of a Young University • Charles K. Field

... join them there. 'Tis probable that most of the pirates will start in pursuit of us, and if we and the slaves make a rush for the shore we may seize our boat, push off, and capture their craft, if there are but a few left on board, knock out a plank and scuttle her, and ...
— A Knight of the White Cross • G.A. Henty

... would have fancied I was advocating your crazy hopes, that I was an interested party and simply opposed the family candidate in order to smuggle in a kinsman of my own in his stead. That idea I was determined to knock out of their heads, happen what would. But that of course you do not understand. And now you had better return to your room. Destiny will one day explain to all of us what we ...
— The Poor Plutocrats • Maurus Jokai

... 12-pounders, much heavier than the field-guns, had arrived. The naval lieutenant in charge said he could go anywhere, or would have a try any way. He was quite sure that if he could get on the top of the hill he would knock out the Boer guns or be knocked out by them, and that was what he wanted to find out. I do not believe that the attempt would have succeeded, or that the guns could have been in position by daylight, but the contrast in ...
— London to Ladysmith via Pretoria • Winston Spencer Churchill

... nook—I'll fix a little cupboard there and keep my tools in. I'll spend half my time our first weeks pottering about with a hammer and a pair of pliers. This place just here on the landing. Looks like a dungeon. We'll knock out a window there and fit it up with hot and cold water as a cloak room. ...
— This Freedom • A. S. M. Hutchinson

... "Now this will be thy best hiding place, to knock out the bottoms of two casks, and then ...
— Njal's Saga • Unknown Icelanders

... and shabby trousers, standing on a cool corner of the veranda and finishing his morning smoke before he went out to picking early apples. Esther knew at precisely what instant he caught sight of her, and saw him knock out his pipe into the garden bed below the veranda and lay it on the rail. Then he waited for her, and she was almost amusedly prepared for his large-eyed wonder and the set of the jaw which betrayed his certainty of having something difficult to meet. It was ...
— The Prisoner • Alice Brown

... "I will knock out your brains if you do not," he replied, lifting from the grate a short, thick poker which lay there. "Do as I bid you at once. You also would be like a tiger if you had fasted for two days, as ...
— Aaron Trow • Anthony Trollope

... and he felt a twinge of conscience. A fly which had singed its wings on his lamp, and was now buzzing round the little table by his bedside, turned his thoughts into another channel; he closed the book and lit a cigarette. He heard his father take off his boots in the room below, knock out his pipe against the stove, pour out a glass of water and get ready to go to bed. He thought how lonely he must be since he had become a widower. In days gone by he had often heard the subdued voices of his parents through the thin partition, ...
— Married • August Strindberg

... humanity without something more at the back of it never made such a man as that. And I beg you to lay that to heart. It is very easy to solve an insoluble problem if you begin by taking all the insoluble elements out of it. And that is how a great deal of modern thinking does with Christianity. Knock out all the miracles; pooh-pooh all Christ's claims; say nothing about Incarnation; declare Resurrection to be entirely unhistorical, and you will not have much difficulty in accounting for the rest; ...
— Expositions of Holy Scripture - St. Matthew Chaps. IX to XXVIII • Alexander Maclaren

... aid the Bernardine Monk. He put us all to shame; O, he is a glorious monk! While I trembled, while I dared not touch the trigger, he snatched the musket from my hands, aimed, and fired. To shoot between two heads! at a hundred paces! and not to miss! and in the very centre of his jaw! to knock out his teeth so! Gentlemen, long have I lived, and but one man have I seen who could boast himself such a marksman: that man once famous among us for so many duels, who used to shoot out the heels from under women's shoes, that scoundrel of scoundrels, renowned ...
— Pan Tadeusz • Adam Mickiewicz

... know, that I do not retire—not just yet. Instead, on a pretext, any pretext, I knock out the ashes from my old pipe, fill it afresh, and wait. I wait patiently, because, inevitable as Fate, inevitable as that call from out the dark void of the sky, I know there will come a trill of the telephone on the desk at my ...
— A Breath of Prairie and other stories • Will Lillibridge

... ones," Bob said. "You see their nearness to other ships makes this imperative. Each ship has to take care not to knock out the apparatus of its neighbor by inconsiderate use of a high-power current; also it must not cause undue interference. In other words, a bevy of ships, like a group of persons, must be courteous to one another. If a ship within a ten-mile radius of another ...
— Walter and the Wireless • Sara Ware Bassett

... The already-launched Mekinese missiles swerved to intercept them. They failed. More missiles erupted from the battleship, aimed to intercept. They also failed. The battleship began to fling out every missile it possessed, in a frantic effort to knock out the Isis's erratic missiles, which neither instruments nor eyes were able to follow accurately enough to ...
— Talents, Incorporated • William Fitzgerald Jenkins

... the log beside him to knock out the ashes, and proceeded thoughtfully to fill it up again. This second filling the Babe had learned to regard as a very hopeful sign. It usually meant that Uncle Andy was in the vein. Seating himself on the grass ...
— Children of the Wild • Charles G. D. Roberts

... wagon, I lie there, kicking the crackers out. Then I leap out and start home eating. It is the crackers which make me fat. Elder brother, I wish you would do likewise. Elder brother, you have large feet, so I think will knock out ...
— Myths and Legends of the Great Plains • Unknown

... for this, and before they could guard against it, one received a severe blow in the chin, and the other had the toe of Matt's shoe nearly knock out his eye. They both gave sharp cries of pain and fell back, and taking advantage of this Matt leaped ...
— Young Auctioneers - The Polishing of a Rolling Stone • Edward Stratemeyer

... to live south the line—in Australasia, anyway, if you're a drunkard. There's a lot of money about, you know. Men come from up-country with a big cheque to knock out—shearers and men like that, who live in the backblocks for months, hundreds of miles from hotels. They come down from the backblocks with perhaps a hundred pounds to spend on a week of blissful unconsciousness. ...
— Captivity • M. Leonora Eyles

... let him hang a bunch of keys on his standard, to put him in remembrance he was a jailor, that, when I take him, I may knock out his brains with them, and lock you in the stable, when you shall ...
— Tamburlaine the Great, Part II. • Christopher Marlowe

... have only to draw them out and the top of the block will be lowered sufficiently to allow the schooner to rest entirely in the cradle. Get a maul, Poole, and you and I will start forward, whilst you, Kit, with another hand, commence aft. Knock out the wedges on both sides as you come to them, and work your way forward until you meet us. The rest of you had better go on board and see that everything is clear and ready ...
— The Pirate Island - A Story of the South Pacific • Harry Collingwood

... would knock out the Nipe would have been useful, but that would have required a greater knowledge of the Nipe's biochemistry than anyone had. The same applied to anesthetic gases, or ...
— Anything You Can Do ... • Gordon Randall Garrett

... Mellinger. Boys, you're confiscated. You're babes in the wood without a chaperon or referee, and it's my duty to start you going. I'll knock out the props and launch you proper in the pellucid waters of this tropical mud puddle. You'll have to be christened, and if you'll come with me I'll break a bottle of wine across your bows, according ...
— Cabbages and Kings • O. Henry

... House-prefects are out after you. We've been looking in Parker's Spinney, and Tony was reluctantly compelled to knock out a keeper who tried to stop us. You should have been there. It was ...
— The Pothunters • P. G. Wodehouse

... merchants robbed of their goods. Being deprived of our land and of our native places, having no house or home to resort to, and relying only on the chances of wind and water, even could we for a moment forget our griefs, we might fall in with a man-of-war, who with stones, darts, and guns, would knock out our brains! Even if we dared to sail up a stream and boldly go on with anxiety of mind under wind, rain, and stormy weather, we must everywhere prepare for fighting. Whether we went to the east, or ...
— The Pirates Own Book • Charles Ellms

... formal. He regretted not having yet met me, and assured me that he would see personally that my quarters were made comfortable. For that matter he had already dispatched orders to Mr. Pike, the first mate of the Elsinore, to knock out the partition between my state-room and the spare state-room adjoining. Further—and here is where my dislike for Captain West began—he informed me that if, when once well at sea, I should find myself dissatisfied, he would gladly, in that case, ...
— The Mutiny of the Elsinore • Jack London

... in that 'ere block," said Solomon. "'Nough, I guess, to keep a man a week. All he has to do is knock out the plug an' pull ...
— In the Days of Poor Richard • Irving Bacheller

... I'll be bound it reached you sooner or later," said the major wrathfully. "I'm d-blessed if anything goes on at this or any other post you women don't get hold of and knock out of shape. I shall tell Griffin that his position as postmaster won't be worth the powder to blow him into the middle of the Platte if that wife of his doesn't hold her tongue. No, I won't listen to ...
— 'Laramie;' - or, The Queen of Bedlam. • Charles King

... I be damned!—askin' your pardon, Kate——But you sure ain't lived in these parts long! Which you wouldn't think one man could ride into a whole town, go to the jail, knock out two guards that was proved men, take the keys, unlock the irons off'n the man he wanted, saddle a hoss, and ride through a whole town—full of folks that was shootin' at him. Now, would you think that ...
— The Night Horseman • Max Brand

... Bud. "But how is the poison gas generated and how does it come up out of cracks in the earth to kill cattle and knock out our men?" ...
— The Boy Ranchers in Death Valley - or Diamond X and the Poison Mystery • Willard F. Baker

... the salmon run, they, like so many other beasts, travel many scores of miles and crowd down to the rivers to gorge themselves upon the fish which are thrown up on the banks. Wading into the water a bear will knock out the salmon right and left when they ...
— Hunting the Grisly and Other Sketches • Theodore Roosevelt

... Adelaide in turn. "I always thought Bob Jeffries was to be depended on any time he was needed. Remember how he played in those ball games, and with never an error. Yes, and didn't he knock out more than a few dandy two-baggers, with men on bases? Why should you be worried ...
— Jack Winters' Gridiron Chums • Mark Overton

... Brown was a large man, in his way, and he argued it out with such convincingness, all of one long fall night, that the trader, driven from position after position, finally announced in desperation, "Knock out my brains with apples, Brown, if I don't become a convert myself, if Keesh holds fast, true blue, for two years!" Mr. Brown never lost an opportunity, so he clinched the matter on the spot with a virile hand-grip, and thenceforth ...
— Children of the Frost • Jack London

... lose his temper. And here John Bull often tripped up. On the last night of the last Carnival—that great night—there was the Senza Moccolo or extinguishment of lights, in which everybody bore a burning taper, and tried to blow or knock out the light of his neighbour. Now, being tall, I held my taper high with one hand, well out of danger, while with a broad felt hat in the other I extinguished the children of light like a priest. I threw myself into all ...
— Memoirs • Charles Godfrey Leland

... serious prayerful go at it. The whole nub of the gospel is here. It clears the ground greatly not to have any theory about Jesus' death, but simply to try thoughtfully to gather up all the statements and group them, regardless of where it may lead, or how it may knock out previous ideas. ...
— Quiet Talks about Jesus • S. D. Gordon

... covered with tin. Save up tomato-cans, cracker-boxes, condensed-milk cans, etc. The cracker-boxes are just as good as sheet-tin, as the pieces are large and clean. You can remove the solder from cans by heating them in the kitchen fire. Knock out the bottoms with a poker when the solder gets soft. Clean the ...
— How Two Boys Made Their Own Electrical Apparatus • Thomas M. (Thomas Matthew) St. John

... said the man. He turned and limped to the rear of the shop, followed by the three cadets. Opening a large cabinet, he pulled out a heavy rifle, a shock gun that could knock out any living thing at a range of a thousand yards, and stun the largest animal at twice ...
— The Revolt on Venus • Carey Rockwell

... referring exclusively to purely sensible (sense perceptual) experiences. "Anxiety" once meant literally a "narrow place," just as when we speak of some one having "a close shave." To "refute" once meant literally "to knock out" an argument. To "understand" meant "to stand in the midst of." To "confer" meant "to bring together." Sensation words themselves were once still more concrete in their meaning. "Violet" and "orange" are obviously taken as color names from ...
— Human Traits and their Social Significance • Irwin Edman

... to-night. But he was not to miss it for long. Just as he was about to knock out his pipe and go to bed, the native came pattering up the slope on excitedly rapid feet; and squatted as usual on the ground beside the American's lounging chair. In Najib's manner there was a scarce-repressed ...
— O Henry Memorial Award Prize Stories of 1919 • Various

... to have a stone to knock out the brains of this blackguard that's driving me mad with ...
— Amphitryo, Asinaria, Aulularia, Bacchides, Captivi • Plautus Titus Maccius

... I think Mr. Hogg would suit you very well; and surely he is a man of great powers, and deserving of encouragement. I must knock out a Tale for him, and you should at all events consider before you reject his suit. Scott is gone to the Orkneys in a gale of wind; and Hogg says that, during the said gale, 'he is sure that Scott is not quite at his ...
— Life of Lord Byron, Vol. III - With His Letters and Journals • Thomas Moore

... Reardon brought his padded wrench down on his defenseless bed. "Too harrd," he told himself. "Sure a blow like that on top av the head would knock out the teeth av the divil ...
— Cappy Ricks Retires • Peter B. Kyne

... chanced to fall upon the wagon. Ha! there were planks there. But to break up his beautiful wagon? No—no—no! Such a thing was not to be thought of. But stay! there was no need to break it up—no need to knock out a single nail. It would serve every purpose without breaking a splinter off it. The fine vehicle was made to take to pieces, and put up again ...
— Popular Adventure Tales • Mayne Reid

... more discouraging than to discover that your most effective blows do not feeze your opponent, and only the knowledge of what a defeat at the hands of a new sparring partner would mean to his future, kept him plugging away at the hopeless task of attempting to knock out this mountain ...
— The Mucker • Edgar Rice Burroughs

... ought to be left and blown to fare-you-well to-night before it's surroun—I wish my cousin were there instead of in Gaines. 'Dolphe fights well, but he knows when not to fight and that we've come, now, to where every man we've got, and every gun, counts bigger than to knock out any two of the enemy's. You know Fred's over yonder, don't you? and that Kincaid's Battery, without their field-pieces, are just here in Powell behind her heavy guns?... Yes, Victorine said you did; I saw her this morning, with Constance." He ...
— Kincaid's Battery • George W. Cable

... that is the kind of disposition they always give to the heroes of novels, the sort of character that will go and run his head against a brick wall to prove that it is the harder and thicker of the two—they knock out their brains though, sometimes, in doing it, when they happen to have any—it is very pretty to read about, splendid in theory, but I much doubt its acting so well if you come to put it ...
— Frank Fairlegh - Scenes From The Life Of A Private Pupil • Frank E. Smedley

... score 1 to 0, the game ran along to the eighth inning. Then Dan Soppinger managed to knock out a two-bagger, and he was followed at the plate by Randy. Two men were already out, so it was a crucial moment in more ...
— The Rover Boys in the Land of Luck - Stirring Adventures in the Oil Fields • Edward Stratemeyer

... made for the knocking out of Mussolini and his gang have largely succeeded. But we still have to knock out Hitler and his gang, and Tojo and his gang. No one of us pretends that this will ...
— The Fireside Chats of Franklin Delano Roosevelt • Franklin Delano Roosevelt

... knowledge that he was so invited. I desired him, as politely as possible, to go out of the garden; he made me an impertinent answer. I insisted on his leaving the garden; he refused. I still persisted in desiring his departure. He then threatened to knock out my eyes, with many abominable imprecations, and with some contempt for my person; it affronted my foolish pride. I therefore took him by the elbows, and pushed him before me until I had got him out. There I intended to have left him; but he, turning about, put himself into a posture ...
— Highways & Byways in Sussex • E.V. Lucas

... a hiding, and promised to knock out any one's brains that went into it. Oh! kindness begets kindness, even ...
— It Is Never Too Late to Mend • Charles Reade

... fight," said he to the Honourable Berkeley Craven. "No country hawbuck is going to knock out a ...
— Rodney Stone • Arthur Conan Doyle

... sergeants have passed that three months' trial in the same way (just as second mates go up for extra master's certificate). They have E.C. after their names in the Army List. That shows they're capable of taking command in event of war. The result of our system is that you could knock out every single officer of a Guard battalion early in the day, and the wheels 'ud still go forward, not merely round. We're allowed to fill up half our commissioned list from the ranks direct. Now d'you see why there's such a rush to get into a ...
— Traffics and Discoveries • Rudyard Kipling

... on ours. Such risks must be compensated for. What you desire, I take it, is to have your marriage annulled. To do that it will be necessary to prove that the divorce procured by Mrs. Dillingham from her former husband, Hawkins, was improperly and illegally granted. We must knock out the decree in Hawkins versus Hawkins somehow or other. To be frank with you, it may ...
— The Confessions of Artemas Quibble • Arthur Train

... shot without convincing these people, the twelfth man would kill me, sure. And so I never did feel so happy as I did when my ninth downed its man and I detected the wavering in the crowd which is premonitory of panic. An instant lost now could knock out my last chance. But I didn't lose it. I raised both revolvers and pointed them—the halted host stood their ground just about one good square moment, ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

... the paper, and proceeded to knock out the ashes from his pipe preparatory to going to bed. His eyes took a last look at the telephone just as Mrs. ...
— Malcolm Sage, Detective • Herbert George Jenkins

... he said sourly. "That comes o' having bad thole-pins;" and he began to knock out the remains of the pin that formed the rowlock and which ...
— Menhardoc • George Manville Fenn

... A-runnin' like fun, for he'd no time to lose. And he'd howl down the ro'd in a big cloud of dust, For he made it his brag he was allus there fust. —Allus there fust, with a whoop and a shout, And he never shut up till the fire was out. And he'd knock out the winders and save all the doors, And tear off the clapboards, and rip up the floors, For he allus allowed 'twas a tarnation sin To 'low 'em to burn, for you'd want 'em agin. He gen'rally stirred up the most ...
— The Book of Humorous Verse • Various

... never dreamt of his having a mate, which I suppose must have joined him while I was away. However, I soon made short work of the two; for I shot them one after the other, and they dropt down as quietly as possible; while I gave them each a crack on the head, to knock out any sense that might have remained, and then laid them, like a dutiful ...
— Fern Vale (Volume 1) - or the Queensland Squatter • Colin Munro

... Japan smokes, both men and women. The universal pipe of the country is a small brass tube about six inches long, with the end turned up and widened to form the bowl. This bowl holds the merest pinch of tobacco; a couple of whiffs, a smart rap on the edge of the brazier to knock out the residue, and the pipe is filled again and again, until the smoker feels satisfied. The girls that wait on one at the yadoyas and tea-houses carry their tobacco in the capacious sleeve-pockets of their dress, and their pipes ...
— Around the World on a Bicycle Volume II. - From Teheran To Yokohama • Thomas Stevens

... The dead are bushed an' stoned to keep 'em safe below! An' them that do not like it they can lump it, An' them that cannot stand it they can jump it; We've got to die somewhere—some way—some'ow— We might as well begin to do it now! Then, Number One, let down the tent-pole slow, Knock out the pegs an' 'old the corners—so! Fold in the flies, furl up the ropes, an' stow! Oh, strike—oh, strike your camp an' ...
— Barrack-Room Ballads • Rudyard Kipling

... was a common practice to knock out one or more of a boy's front teeth at those ceremonies of initiation to which every male member had to submit before he could enjoy the rights and privileges of a full-grown man. The reason of the practice is obscure; all that concerns ...
— The Golden Bough - A study of magic and religion • Sir James George Frazer

... the eggs last, then knock out the head of that barrel and make gruel till I pass the word ...
— Work: A Story of Experience • Louisa May Alcott

... say?—wholesome. I intend to have my daughters educated in England. Nowhere else in the world but in England could I have met at a Variety Theatre a charming young lady of perfect respectability, and enjoyed a dance with her at a public dancing saloon. And where else are women trained to box and knock out the teeth of policemen as a protest against injustice and violence? [Rising, with immense elan] Your daughter, madam, is superb. Your country is a model to the rest of Europe. If you were a Frenchman, stifled with prudery, hypocrisy and the tyranny of the family and the home, ...
— Fanny's First Play • George Bernard Shaw

... says Jim, 'there's no pleasing you to-day; one would think there were lots of chaps fighting how to give us a lift. Good-bye, George, old man; I'm sorry we can't wire in with you; we'd soon knock out those posts and ...
— Robbery Under Arms • Thomas Alexander Browne, AKA Rolf Boldrewood

... recent attack the Hun set to work to knock out our artillery. He commenced with a heavy shelling of our batteries—this lasted for some hours. He followed it up by clapping down on them a gas-barrage. The gunners' only chance of protecting themselves from the deadly fumes was to wear their gas-helmets. All of a ...
— The Glory of the Trenches • Coningsby Dawson

... Parliament, gentlemen, please"—which is a phrase sometimes used in clearing a public-house. To-night there was no need for her to do that. She had only to look at Pa, to take from his hand the almost empty pipe, to knock out the ashes, ...
— Nocturne • Frank Swinnerton

... be able to knock out ten or twelve pretty satisfactory years. On the other hand, might die to-morrow; hope I don't, though. As long as I can drive a car and everything goes well with Adelaide and this child, I'd be content to live my full time—and a little bit more. ...
— The Happiest Time of Their Lives • Alice Duer Miller

... ex abundanti cautela knocked a nail out of the right boot that he had been wearing and changed boots with my father; but he thought it more plausible not to knock out exactly the same nail that was missing on my father's boot. When the change was made, each found—or said he found—the other's boots ...
— Erewhon Revisited • Samuel Butler

... have another Sullivan—thank you—and a match. The unpleasant incident was steps outside and a key in the lock! I was disporting myself on the lid of the trunk at the time. I had barely time to knock out my light and slip down behind it. Luckily it was only another box of sorts; a jewel-case, to be more precise; you shall see the contents in a moment. The Easter exodus has done me even better than I ...
— A Thief in the Night • E. W. Hornung

... natural size so that a woman could sit on it properly he kneels down to do it I suppose there isnt in all creation another man with the habits he has look at the way hes sleeping at the foot of the bed how can he without a hard bolster its well he doesnt kick or he might knock out all my teeth breathing with his hand on his nose like that Indian god he took me to show one wet Sunday in the museum in Kildare street all yellow in a pinafore lying on his side on his hand with his ten toes sticking out that he said was a bigger religion ...
— Ulysses • James Joyce

... upon us!' sighed my aunt. 'I know all about it, Trot! Barkis and myself had quite a gossip while you were out with Dick. I know all about it. I don't know where these wretched girls expect to go to, for my part. I wonder they don't knock out their brains against—against mantelpieces,' said my aunt; an idea which was probably suggested to her by her ...
— David Copperfield • Charles Dickens

... out the hound—his hand went to the tender scrape on his own scalp where that box had left its glancing mark—if they could knock out the hound—But how? As accurate marksmen as the mermen were with their spears, he was not sure they could bring down the box. Its sudden darts and dips were too erratic. Then what? Because as long as it bobbed there, ...
— Star Born • Andre Norton

... "Ye'll all stick together, and never get clar, if ye do dat fashion. Go long to de spring and wash yerselves!" she said, seconding her exhortations by a slap, which resounded very formidably, but which seemed only to knock out so much more laugh from the young ones, as they tumbled precipitately over each other out of doors, where they fairly screamed ...
— Uncle Tom's Cabin • Harriet Beecher Stowe

... I didn't know you cared for anything more advanced than those ballad affairs. However, if that's a wrong idea, I'm very glad. We'll have some tunes together after this, and perhaps Haigh and I may knock out an item or two that's fresh to you. But for the present, as you suggest—bjorn. I'll be with you on the sand there in ...
— The Recipe for Diamonds • Charles John Cutcliffe Wright Hyne

... saw three buckets set in the scuola di San Rocco to catch the rain which came through the canvases of Tintoret on the roof; and that while the old works of art are left thus unprotected, the palaces are being restored in the following modes. The English residents knock out bow windows to see up and down the canal. The Italians paint all the marble white or cream color, stucco the fronts, and paint them in blue and white stripes to imitate alabaster. (This has been done with Danieli's hotel, with ...
— Modern Painters Volume II (of V) • John Ruskin

... to Spindrift, we also removed the chance of taping project members in some natural setting like the barbershop. They had hoped to knock out the team without anyone suspecting it was enemy interference. That worked, at first. But moving the project upset their plans. They rigged the train deal that caught Marks. But even though it worked, it showed we ...
— The Electronic Mind Reader • John Blaine

... be no difficulty in getting the masts out," the captain answered. "I have only to knock out the wedges, and loosen the stays, and get up a tripod made of three spars to lift them out; but I don't see how they are to be ...
— The Lion of Saint Mark - A Story of Venice in the Fourteenth Century • G. A. Henty

... your men below, captain; you will find plenty of hot soup there. Now, Watkins, let us be off; that steamer won't hold together many minutes longer, so there's no time to lose. We will go back as we came. Give me a hatchet. Now, lads, two of you stand at the chain-cables; knock out the shackles the moment I cut the hawser. Watkins, you take the helm and let her head pay off till the jib fills. Jack, you lend a hand to the other two, and get up the try-sail again as soon ...
— Tales of Daring and Danger • George Alfred Henty

... "Knock out the other lantern, pop," put in Dan Baxter, and the parent turned in the second barrel of the shotgun with ...
— The Rover Boys on the Ocean • Arthur M. Winfield

... "You might knock out a few with missiles, before they strike. Undoubtedly you can punch holes in them with laser guns. But that won't do any good, except when you're lucky enough to hit a vital part. Nobody's aboard to be killed. Not even much gas will be lost, ...
— Industrial Revolution • Poul William Anderson

... didn't know that! . . . Why, man, I didn't choose Farrell, to pay my attentions to him. If the gods had paid me the compliment of sending along the late Mr. Gladstone, or the present Archbishop of Canterbury (whoever he may be), or General Booth (if he's alive), to knock out eight years of my life like so many skittles in an alley, I'd have felt flattered, of course. But they didn't: they sent along Farrell, and I bow my head before a higher wisdom which, you'll allow, has been justified of its child. Could the late Mr. Gladstone—since we've instanced ...
— Foe-Farrell • Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

... are obvious. But no electric light and power company can afford to run its cables underground in the country. The service lines are on poles and extend over a large area. Nature has no regard for the convenience of either the company or its patrons. A thunderbolt may knock out a transformer, or a tree may be blown down and carry nearby electric lines with it. Repair men are continually on the job with a well-run company and work speedily and faithfully but they cannot be everywhere at once. Service may be ...
— If You're Going to Live in the Country • Thomas H. Ormsbee and Richmond Huntley

... knock out the hound—his hand went to the tender scrape on his own scalp where that box had left its glancing mark—if they could knock out the hound—But how? As accurate marksmen as the mermen were with their spears, he was not sure they could bring down the box. Its sudden darts and ...
— Star Born • Andre Norton

... them, as appears from the quoted words of the bishop: and in truth very little indeed does he express, of what they suffer. 17. When the Spaniards make them labour, carrying loads over the mountains, they kick and beat them, and knock out their teeth with the handles of their swords, to force them to get up when they fall, fainting from weakness, and to go on without taking breath; and the Indians commonly exclaim; "go to, how wicked you are: I am worn out so kill ...
— Bartholomew de Las Casas; his life, apostolate, and writings • Francis Augustus MacNutt

... brought Marco a stone, and Marco began to knock out the nails. Very soon, however, he set the boy at work upon the nails, while he went in pursuit of some short boards, to nail across from one log to the other. He found some, which he thought would answer, without much difficulty, and collected ...
— Forests of Maine - Marco Paul's Adventures in Pursuit of Knowledge • Jacob S. Abbott

... leisurably on a hillock of thyme, began to knock out his pipe against the edge of his boot-sole, and suddenly exploded in laughter so violent that he was forced to hold his sides. The exhibition took Nicky-Nan right aback. He could but stand ...
— Nicky-Nan, Reservist • Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch (Q)

... the stage: Yet Athens never knew your learned sport Of tossing poets in a tennis-court. But 'tis the talent of our English nation, Still to be plotting some new reformation: 10 And few years hence, if anarchy goes on, Jack Presbyter shall here erect his throne, Knock out a tub with preaching once a day, And every prayer be longer than a play. Then all your heathen wits shall go to pot, For disbelieving of a Popish plot: Your poets shall be used like infidels, And worst, the author of the Oxford ...
— The Poetical Works of John Dryden, Vol II - With Life, Critical Dissertation, and Explanatory Notes • John Dryden

... whale doesn't have the sort of bone that is valuable, I believe," suggested Frank. "It's only for the oil that they're hunted. But still, if we can get this one we ought to knock out a pretty penny." ...
— Frank and Andy Afloat - The Cave on the Island • Vance Barnum

... gun to see gun, and even when seen to knock out gun, which has put an end to the so-called artillery duel of pitched- battle days, when cannon walloped cannon to keep cannon from walloping the infantry. Now when there is an action, though guns still go after guns if they know where they are, most of the firing ...
— My Year of the War • Frederick Palmer

... a scanty base of impure calcareous matter into a firm conglomerate. To show how exceedingly firm this recent conglomerate is, I may mention, that I endeavoured with a heavy geological hammer to knock out a thick bolt of iron, which was embedded a little above low-water mark, but ...
— Volcanic Islands • Charles Darwin

... fire, near which there lay a number of assagays, together with three small hammers, consisting of a wooden handle to one end of which a hard pebble was fastened by means of a kind of wax or gum, the whole strong and heavy enough to knock out a man's brains. ...
— The Part Borne by the Dutch in the Discovery of Australia 1606-1765 • J. E. Heeres

... proper power. When shutting off steam, the water is liable to drop below the crown sheet and thus risk burning the fire-box. When water primes badly, it is liable to break cylinder packing rings, knock out cylinder heads, break bolts in the steam chest and cut the valves. In such a case additional oil should be fed to the steam chest until the valves ...
— The Traveling Engineers' Association - To Improve The Locomotive Engine Service of American Railroads • Anonymous

... be plunged, on learning that he had been swept out to sea in a little boat, and drowned, as she would naturally suppose. In his frenzy he entreated and implored the captain to send him back in the boat, and even threatened to knock out his brains with a handspike if he did not; but the captain smiled and told him that it was his own fault. He had no business to be putting to sea in a small boat in rough weather, and he might be thankful he wasn't drowned. He wouldn't turn back now for fifty ...
— Martin Rattler • Robert Michael Ballantyne

... Spaniards. They use the laqui both in war and hunting; but that used in war has a ball, or weight fastened to one or both ends of the leathern thong instead of a noose. The ball weighs about a pound. When used single, or with only one ball, it is aimed at the head of the enemy, to knock out his brains. With the double laqui, having a ball at each end, they can fasten a man to his horse, and effectually entangle ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 5 • Robert Kerr

... I hope! In a prison you've got to step light and go the other way around to get to a thing. I'm favored here, and I'm supposed to be nursing rheumatism." He leaned forward to knock out his pipe dottle and found an opportunity to give Vaniman a wink. "I arranged to come off the wall—knowing all about your case. I could ask to come out here, having found that night work didn't help me! Sunshine is good. But you couldn't ask for sunshine. ...
— When Egypt Went Broke • Holman Day

... Rollo, laughing, "I never thought of that. Go down, Nathan," he continued, "to the door, and I will go round and knock out the fid." ...
— Rollo's Philosophy. [Air] • Jacob Abbott

... Master Stapleton, suppose we were to knock out half a port," observed old Tom, after a silence of two minutes; "for the old gentleman blows a devil of a cloud: that is, if no one has an objection." Stapleton gave a nod of assent, and I rose and put the upper window down a few inches. "Ay, that's right, Jacob; now we shall see what ...
— Jacob Faithful • Captain Frederick Marryat

... head. All of his spears were gone, save for one he had kept, hoping for a last good target. One of the Throgs who appeared to be directing the fire of the others was facing Shann's position. And on pure chance that he might knock out that leader, Shann chose him for ...
— Storm Over Warlock • Andre Norton

... The next time you design to bring a trunk downstairs, you would better cut away the underpinning, and knock out the beams, and let the garret down into the cellar. It will make less uproar, and not take so ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 11, Issue 67, May, 1863 • Various

... that I haven't a stone, to knock out the brains of that whip-scoundrel, who's driving mo to madness ...
— The Captiva and The Mostellaria • Plautus

... wanting, in your opinion, pray suggest it to me in Paris. I am bent on having it right, if I can. . . . If in going over the proofs you find the tendency to blank verse (I cannot help it, when I am very much in earnest) too strong, knock out a word's brains here and there." (13th of November. Sending the ...
— The Life of Charles Dickens, Vol. I-III, Complete • John Forster

... corner-holes does the sensibility, the fineness, (that of which refinement is but a counterfeit, at best but a reflex,) the geniality of nature appear in this 'son of thunder!' O for a Luther in the present age! Why, Charles! [3] with the very handcuffs of his prejudices he would knock out the brains (nay, that is impossible, but,) he would split the skulls of our 'Cristo-galli', translate the word as you like:—French Christians, ...
— Coleridge's Literary Remains, Volume 4. • Samuel Taylor Coleridge

... to another, the two spectators, so far from home themselves, had something of wistfulness in their eyes as they watched a cat being stroked, a sleepy child picked up and huddled off to bed, or a tired man stretch and knock out his pipe on the end ...
— The Wind in the Willows • Kenneth Grahame

... said he, and looked round for a place to knock out his pipe. I passed him the ash-bowl that Mac brought back from Mexico when he went down there to do a bird's-eye view for a mining company. Mr. Carville held it up to examine the crude red and blue daub on the ...
— Aliens • William McFee

... to get fighters out of sight so quickly would account for our not being able to knock out their fighter fields," Stan said. "We'll have to ...
— A Yankee Flier Over Berlin • Al Avery

... rubbed into the cuts (I am told it is charcoal), and the ornament shows brightly in persons of light complexion, who by the bye are common. The Makonde and Matambwe file their front teeth to points; the Machinga, a Waiyan tribe, leave two points on the sides of the front teeth, and knock out one of the middle incisors above ...
— The Last Journals of David Livingstone, in Central Africa, from 1865 to His Death, Volume I (of 2), 1866-1868 • David Livingstone

... struck the ladies' tee box squarely and came back and stunned my caddie, causing me to lose stroke and distance. Nevertheless, I hold that the advantages outnumber the drawbacks. Golf humanizes women, humbles their haughty natures, tends, in short, to knock out of their systems a certain modicum of that superciliousness, that swank, which makes wooing a tough proposition for the diffident male. You ...
— The Clicking of Cuthbert • P. G. Wodehouse

... would be refused admittance; while, in Germany, they would be persecuted by Herr von Treitschke with Christian ardour. Bidding is languid, and valuable books are knocked down for trifling sums. Let the neophyte try his luck, however, and prices will rise wonderfully. The fact is that the sale is a "knock out." The bidders are professionals, in a league to let the volumes go cheap, and to distribute them afterwards among themselves. Thus an amateur can have a good deal of sport by bidding for a book till it reaches its proper value, and by then leaving in the lurch the ...
— The Library • Andrew Lang

... vomiting and groaning. Several mild maniacs ran out in vast agitation, and, to curry favour, offered to help catch him. Vast was their zeal. But when it came to the point, they only danced wildly about and cried, "Stop him! for God's sake stop him! he's ill, dreadfully ill; poor wretch! knock out his brains!" And, whenever he came near them, away they ran ...
— Hard Cash • Charles Reade

... glory!" At first I wonder'd, by degrees grew bolder, Then cried—"tis a fine thing to be a soldier!" "Aye Humphrey!" says the Serjeant—"that's your name? "'Tis a fine thing to fight the French for fame! "March to the field—knock out a Mounseer's brains "And pick the scoundrel's pocket for your pains. "Come Humphrey come! thou art a lad of spirit! "Rise to a halbert—as I did—by merit! "Would'st thou believe it? even I was once "As thou art now, a plough-boy and a dunce; ...
— Poems • Robert Southey

... short as it fell within twenty paces of him, like a meteor out of the sky. Then he turned and stared up at me. The next minute I saw him knock out his little briar pipe, put it away in his pocket, and cross over to ...
— The Prairie Mother • Arthur Stringer

... the walnut into the crack. He slipped it along until he got it to a place where the crack was just wide enough to receive it, and hold it steady. He left it there, and then the boy began to knock out the wedge. ...
— Rollo's Experiments • Jacob Abbott

... my stomach with such stuff, even if it has gone back on me," he exclaimed. "That will knock out any man who drinks it ...
— A Black Adonis • Linn Boyd Porter

... angered him yet further. He set it down to his threadbare coat and rustic boots. It was in no sweet mood that he strode up Hoe Terrace, eyeing the numbers above the doors, and halted at length to knock out his pipe before a house with an unpainted area-railing, to which a small boy in ragged knickerbockers was engaged in attaching with a string the tail of a ...
— The White Wolf and Other Fireside Tales • Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

... ignorant of their relations to their fellow-men, to beat them with sticks, to flay their flesh with the lash, to load their limbs with irons, to hunt them with dogs, to sell them at auction, to sunder their families, to knock out their teeth, to burn their flesh, to starve them into obedience and submission to their masters? Must I argue that a system, thus marked with blood and stained with pollution, is wrong? No; I will not. ...
— My Bondage and My Freedom • Frederick Douglass



Words linked to "Knock out" :   extinguish, overwhelm, beat, beat up, sweep over, take, withdraw, do away with, overcome, remove, overtake, kayo, knockout, whelm, take away, work over, overpower, knock cold, get rid of, eliminate, empty



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