to knock on the door
73
1.0
- phrasal verb
- /nɑk ɑn ðə dɔr/
- When he arrived at the house, he decided to knock on the door to see if anyone was home.
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Watch on YouTubeGets to the study, knocks on the door, opens it.
- Gets to the study, knocks on the door, opens it.
- So I turned up, knocked on the door and said hi there.
- And Carew's worst fear is knocking on the door and not having them answer.
- So he goes and knock on the door, and he brings his drummer out.
- She says a colleague knocks on the door, comes in.
- I trusted God, obeyed him, knocked on the door.
- Stephen tries The time the girl knocked on the door.
- I've gone out to our office, knocked on the door.
- We're not going to knock on the door and at least ask him if this is where it came from.
- And we go up the up the exterior stairwell to the to the house and we knock on the door.
Examples
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Then I'm going to drive to his place and I'm going to knock on the door.
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Okay, all you gotta do is knock on the door.
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We're not going to knock on the door and at least ask him if this is where it came from.
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Jack, go knock on the door again.
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Hey, you should knock on the door.
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Well, just knock on the door when you want me.
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I'll knock on the door.
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I knocked on the door, and it was open.
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I just knocked on the door, and it swung open.
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We were alone in the cabin, and I knocked on the door of Charlie's room.
Fiction book (1991)
Synonyms
825
1.0
To hit a surface to make a short sound to get attention
14
2.7
A light touch or knock to get someone's attention
Antonyms
How Loud
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'to hit a door to attract attention' is directly and transparently derived from the constituents: 'knock' (to strike) + 'on' (on/against) + 'door' (the object). This is a literal, compositional action description found across many languages, and the presence of the article 'the' does not affect predictability, so a B1 learner who knows the words will readily understand it.
Etymology
The phrase knock on the door comes from the simple act of using your hand to knock on a door to get someone's attention. So today it means 'to make a sound at a door to get the attention of the people inside'.