Word.ws English Dictionary

knew one's onions

knew one's onions is the simple past of know one's onions.

Meaning of know one's onions

Verb

know one's onions (third-person singular simple present knows one's onions, present participle knowing one's onions, simple past knew one's onions, past participle known one's onions)

  1. (informal) Synonym of know one's stuff: to be knowledgeable about a given subject or task.
    • Joe really knows his onions when it comes to cooking.

Questions about knew one's onions

What is knew one's onions the simple past of?
Knew one's onions is the simple past of know one's onions.

Words near knew one's onions in the dictionary

  1. knew one's arse from one's elbow
  2. knew one's ass from a hole in the ground
  3. knew one's ass from one's elbow
  4. knew one's head from a hole in the ground
  5. knew one's head from one's ass
  6. knew one's onions
  7. knew one's own head
  8. knew one's own mind
  9. knew one's place
  10. knew one's shit
  11. knew one's stuff

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: knew one's onions (page history and authors); know one's onions (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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