knock off
verb
Meaning
- To halt one's work or other activity.
- To kill.
- To defeat.
- To remove, as a discount or estimate.
- To rob.
- To make a copy of, as of a design.
- To assign (an item) to a bidder at an auction, indicated by knocking on the counter.
- To have sex with (a woman).
- To accomplish hastily.
- To remove (something or someone) by hitting.
- Nonstandard form of knockoff.
Etymology / origin
In the verb sense of stopping work, said to be from the practice aboard slave galleys to have a man beat time for the rowers by knocking on a block or drum; when he stopped, the rowers could rest.
Related words
Descendant words
- afnokken(Dutch) (cal)
Sources
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