to knock out
64
3.8
- phrasal verb
- /nɑk aʊt/
:
derribar
- A wave could knock the helicopter out of the sky.
- knock out a tooth
- knock out a wall
- knock out of someone's hand
They knocked out a long term care provision.
- They knocked out a long term care provision.
- These options can either knock in or knock out.
- So she said that in a huge windstorm, the wind knocked out a whole bunch of cones onto their lawn.
- Like I take it all off and then I slowly slide it right just so that it knocks out a lot of the warmth in the photo.
- So I ran up out of the wheel fish hole and knocked the boat out of gear.
- And on Saturday, a major oil processing facility in Saudi Arabia was knocked out by multiple Jones strikes.
- And a big one swam past me right in front of him and the tail knocked his regulator out.
- A higher energy particle comes in and damages it, knocks out a trace or two, and the whole thing stops working.
- And he said if somebody else talked to you the way you talk to yourself, you would knock their teeth out.
Examples
-
The boxer managed to knock out his opponent in the third round with a powerful punch.
-
For two days, wind and rain hammered his house, knocking out the power and the running water.
Academic text (2011) -
The fire knocked out most of the systems room.
-
Sir, their weapons have been knocked out.
-
Something big enough to knock out three satellites is not good news.
Fiction book (1991) -
I told my two firemen to knock out a window.
-
You have a storm of a lifetime that knocks power out to 2.5 million homes.
Blog text (25) -
That EMP knocked out almost every piece of hardware and every APU.
-
The storm was so fierce that it knocked out knocked out the power in several neighborhoods.
-
During the renovation, they decided to knock out the old wall to create a more spacious living area.
Synonyms
311
2.1
To break something into many pieces using great force
225
2.9
To badly damage or destroy something
87
5.7
To take down a structure or equipment after use
68
4.4
To pull something out quickly and with force, often to remove it completely
57
3.2
Make a building or wall fall down suddenly
45
3.4
To remove something by cutting, often with a sharp blow
34
5.8
To break something into pieces by hitting it hard
24
4.8
To pull something out with force
14
5.5
Force open a door or gate by hitting it with your foot
13
4.2
To stop something completely using strong action
12
3.0
To pull something off quickly until it rips
11
4.1
To completely destroy something, often hopes or plans
9
3.5
To break a piece from something with a quick, sharp movement
8
7.6
Damage something badly, often by hitting or dropping it
6
4.2
To push something out with effort or pressure
5
4.7
To damage something very badly so it breaks into pieces
1
8.6
To hit someone or something very hard and damage it
1
7.1
To force something down by hitting it hard
1
7.1
Force a door open by hitting it hard
Make something stop working by hitting or dropping it
Antonyms
How Damaged
Surface Forms
Morphology
knock + out
The literal sense 'to render unconscious' is transparently built from 'knock' (to strike) + 'out' (into an unconscious state), and the figurative sense 'to impress or overwhelm' is a metaphorical extension of that physical impact. This metaphorical transfer is partially predictable but not fully obvious to a B1 learner who has not encountered the idiomatic use, so the expression is only partially transparent.
Etymology
Knock out — The idea of hitting something until it comes out gives this use a simple picture: strike a piece so it falls away, like knocking a damaged brick or window out of a wall. So knock out can mean 'to destroy, break, or remove something by force'.