knock

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To hit a surface with your knuckles to make a sound, especially on a door.

   Please knock on the door before you come in.

2. 2
   noun

   The sound of something hitting a surface, especially a knock on a door.

   There was a loud knock at the door.

3. 3
   noun

   A hard hit or blow.

   He took a knock on the head during the game.

4. 4
   noun

   A setback or difficult experience.

   She learned a lot from the school of hard knocks.

Common collocations

• gentle knock Adjective + noun
• loud knock Adjective + noun
• soft knock Adjective + noun
• give a knock Verb + noun
• hear a knock Verb + noun
• sharp knock Adjective + noun

From Middle English knokken, from Old English cnocian, ġecnocian, ġecnucian, cnucian (“to knock, pound on, beat”), from Proto-West Germanic *knokōn, from Proto-Germanic *knukōną (“to knock”), a suffixed form of *knu-, *knew- (“to pound on, beat”), from Proto-Indo-European *gnew-, *gen- (“to squeeze, pinch, kink, ball up, concentrate”). The English word is cognate with Middle High German knochen (“to hit”), Old English cnuian, cnuwian (“to pound, knock”), Old Norse knoka (compare Danish knuge (“to squeeze”), Swedish knocka (“to hug”)). More at knuckle.

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