Word.ws English Dictionary

before one knows it

before one knows it phrase: rapidly (and sometimes unexpectedly).

Phrase

before one knows it

  1. Rapidly (and sometimes unexpectedly).
    • One lot steals a goat from another lot, before you know it they're ripping each other to pieces.

Questions about before one knows it

What does before one knows it mean?
Before one knows it means rapidly (and sometimes unexpectedly).
What part of speech is before one knows it?
Before one knows it is a phrase.

Words near before one knows it in the dictionary

  1. before image journal
  2. before image journals
  3. before it was cool
  4. before long
  5. before one can blink
  6. before one knows it
  7. before one knows where one is
  8. before one's eyes
  9. before someone's time
  10. before the fact
  11. before the ink had time to dry

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: before one knows it (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “before one knows it.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/before_one_knows_it. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.