Word.ws English Dictionary

knock dead

knock dead verb: to amaze or greatly impress (someone) by delivering an outstanding performance.

Verb

knock dead (third-person singular simple present knocks dead, present participle knocking dead, simple past and past participle knocked dead)

  1. (informal, transitive) To amaze or greatly impress (someone) by delivering an outstanding performance.
    • I'm feeling very confident about my job interview. I'm going to go in and knock 'em dead.

Forms of knock dead

third-person singular presentknocks dead
present participleknocking dead
past participleknocked dead
pastknocked dead

Questions about knock dead

What does knock dead mean?
Knock dead means to amaze or greatly impress (someone) by delivering an outstanding performance.
What part of speech is knock dead?
Knock dead is a verb.
What is the past tense of knock dead?
The past tense of knock dead is knocked dead.

Words near knock dead in the dictionary

  1. knock at the door of
  2. knock back
  3. knock boots
  4. knock box
  5. knock boxes
  6. knock dead
  7. knock door run
  8. knock down
  9. knock down a notch
  10. knock down a peg
  11. knock down ginger

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: knock dead (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: “knock dead.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/knock_dead. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.