knock about

From knock (verb) + about.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌnɒk əˈbaʊt/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌnɑk əˈbaʊt/

• Audio (GA)

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• Rhymes: -aʊt

knock about (third-person singular simple present knocks about, present participle knocking about, simple past and past participle knocked about) (informal)

1. (transitive) To hit (someone or something) all over repeatedly; hence, to behave violently towards or mistreat (someone or something).

   Synonyms: knock around, knock round

   It was known that he would knock his wife about when he had been drinking.

   • 1817 (date written), [Jane Austen], chapter III, in Persuasion; published in Northanger Abbey: And Persuasion. […], volume III, London: John Murray, […], 20 December 1817 (indicated as 1818), →OCLC, page 44:

     I never saw quite so wretched an example of what a sea-faring life can do; but to a degree, I know it is the same with them all: they are all knocked about, and exposed to every climate, and every weather, till they are not fit to be seen.

   • 1922 (date written; published 1926), T[homas] E[dward] Lawrence, “Book VI: The Raid upon the Bridges. Chapter LXXVI.”, in Seven Pillars of Wisdom: A Triumph, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Doran & Company, published 1937, →OCLC, page 424:

     [Y]oung Mustafa refused to cook rice; Farraj and Daud knocked him about until he cried; […]

   • 2023 February 22, Stephen Roberts, “Reading … between the lines … to Wales”, in Rail, number 977, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire: Bauer Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 56:

     The place also got knocked about during the English Civil War, with "the spire [of its church] having been destroyed by the artillery of the Parliamentary forces".

2. (intransitive)
   1. To move or roam around aimlessly.

      Synonyms: knock around, knock round

      1. (by extension) To live an unconventional life.
   2. To be present at or inhabit a certain place.

      Synonym: hang around

      • 1881, P. Chr. Asbjörnsen [i.e., Peter Christen Asbjørnsen], “A Day with the Capercailzies”, in H. L. Brækstad, transl., Round the Yule Log. Norwegian Folk and Fairy Tales, London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, →OCLC, page 77:

        He [a hare] used to knock about here in Holleia, and they said he was nearly black. A good many were after him and had a shot at him, but they never had any luck, until this rascally Andreas came here.

      • 1902 January–March, Joseph Conrad, “Typhoon”, in George R. Halkett, editor, The Pall Mall Magazine, volume XXVI, London: Printed by Hazell, Watson & Viney, →OCLC, chapter I, page 92, column 2:

        [I]n the chart-room of the steamer Nan-Shan, he stood confronted by the fall of a barometer he had no reason to distrust. […] "That's a fall, and no mistake," he thought. "There must be some uncommonly dirty weather knocking about."

      1. (by extension) To engage in a relaxing activity in a place; to hang around in.

         Synonyms: potter about, potter around

         I like to knock about the garden on Saturdays.

      2. (by extension) Often followed by with: to spend time companionably; to hang around.

         Synonyms: hang, hang about, knock around, knock round

         I used to knock about with John when we were younger.

         John and I used to knock about when we were younger.

      3. (by extension, usually in present participial form) To be mislaid in a place.

         Synonyms: knock around, knock round, lie around

         I’ve got some scissors knocking about in the kitchen.

• “knock about, phrasal v.” under “knock, v.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, December 2022.