to knock off one's perch
1
7.9
- idiom
- Informal
:
desplazar de su posición
- After the championship game, the underdog team knocked off their rivals from their perch as champions.
- get knocked off one's perch
Examples
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The only one getting knocked off his perch is you!
-
That said, there may be a genius this year with an Evil Invention so revolutionary that Schadenfreude might finally get knocked off his perch!
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The new startup quickly knocked off the established company from its perch in the market.
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In the talent show, the young singer knocked off the reigning champion from her perch with a stunning performance.
Synonyms
46
3.4
To remove someone or something from a competition by defeating them
3
7.6
Make someone feel less proud by criticizing or embarrassing them
1
6.1
To have an advantage over someone in competition
1
8.8
Beat someone by a lot
To win against other teams or companies in a contest
To get an advantage over someone by doing better than them
Antonyms
How Removed
Surface Forms
Morphology
The verb phrase 'knock off' (remove) combined with 'one's perch' (a high place to sit) yields a clear metaphor of removing someone from a lofty position; the constituent meanings point toward displacement from a height. However, the transfer from a physical 'perch' to social/status superiority is a metaphorical extension rather than strictly compositional, so a B1 learner might infer the sense but it is not fully predictable without some exposure.
Etymology
The idiom knock off one's perch comes from the image of a bird sitting high on a perch. If you knock the bird off, it falls and loses its high place, so the phrase means 'to remove someone from a top position or to defeat them'.