to knock off
8
4.3
- phrasal verb
- /nɑk ɔf/
- I'll knock 20% off that Trinitron for you.
- knock off the price
- knock off 20 percent
- knock off a few dollars
Examples
-
If GM is willing to knock 5k off a slow seller, the government kicks in another 5k.
Blog text (30) -
For you, sir, I'll knock off $1,000.
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...and I will knock ten grand off the debt.
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But after everything that went down today, how about I knock off 25 percent.
-
How much will you knock off?
Blog text (14) -
I'm gonna knock three grand off.
-
How about I knock $200 off the MSRP?
Blog text (29) -
Well, the sticker says 75, but l can knock 20 percent off if you pay cash.
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Mr. Froggy Wineman has just knocked a million off our sale price.
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The store was having a sale, so I asked if they could knock off $50 from the price of the jacket.
Synonyms
38
1.7
To sell something at a lower price than usual
22
3.9
Make a price or amount a little smaller
8
2.5
To lower the price of something
Antonyms
How Much
Surface Forms
Morphology
knock + off
The particle 'off' can signal cessation or removal, which gives a cue toward 'stop', but the verb 'knock' (to hit) does not independently convey stopping; the imperative use ('knock it off') is conversational and idiomatic. Because the meaning relies on a conventionalized phrasal-verb use rather than straightforward compositional semantics, a B1 learner who only knows the constituent words would likely need prior exposure to fully understand it.
Etymology
Knock off may come from the picture of a seller literally knocking a little bit off a price tag, like removing a few coins from the total. That's why it means 'to reduce the price'.