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.

Multiword verbs with knock

• knock off Phrasal verb A2

  to stop working or end an activity, informally

• knock over Phrasal verb A2

  to hit or push something so that it falls from an upright position

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Knock is an Old English word whose origin probably lies in an attempt to imitate a sound. Its American sense “to speak disparagingly about” is recorded from the late nineteenth century.

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.

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary