🔨 To hit repeatedly 👴 To still exist

to knock about

8.2

To still be around in a place or situation

phrasal verb

: andar por ahí

All those nights he knocked about his house while his family slept, he could just as easily have stepped outside his door and looked up.

Examples

You've got, you've got human race been around for millions of years just knocking about back in caveman days or whatever, right when this caveman is eaten.
But these we can knock about a little bit.
But I'm also on the streets knocking about with all the kids, making door, you know, doing this, doing that and dabbling.
He sat in a corner and watched Faust, who knocked about the room and sang, accompanying himself on a guitar.

Fiction book (1993)
You've got, you've got human race been around for millions of years just knocking about back in caveman days or whatever, right when this caveman is eaten.
Even though he felt unwell, he continued to knock about the house, making sure everything was in order.
Despite not having any plans, she enjoyed knocking about the park, watching people stroll by.
After retiring, he spent his days knocking about the neighborhood, chatting with old friends.

Synonyms

to kick around

vsto knock about

Informal

6 7.1

Be alive or still active after a long time

focuses on ordinary unremarkable continued presence rather than survival struggle

to kick about

vsto knock about

8.3

To stay alive or active when people think you will not

is used for continuing alive or present in an ordinary unremarkable way

Antonyms

to disappear

∞ 1.0

To stop being seen or to no longer be there

to fade away

69 3.0

To become weaker and then disappear over time

Surface Forms

knock about infinitive

knocked about past

knocked about past participle

knocking about present participle

knocks about third person singular

Morphology

knock + about

The sense 'to strike or hit something repeatedly' is directly built from 'knock' (to strike) plus 'about' (around/around the place); the particle 'about' adds the idea of hitting 'around' or repeatedly, so the combined meaning is compositionally predictable. This verb+particle pattern is a regular, literal combination that a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily infer.

Etymology

Knock about may come from the picture of a person or thing that has been knocked around but keeps turning up. That's why people use it to mean 'to be still around or active'.