knock off

Verb

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

1. (ditransitive) To remove (something or someone) by applying a strong force.
   • He was knocked off his bike.
   • The wave knocked me off my feet.
2. (transitive) To remove, as a discount or estimate.
   • They agreed to knock off 20% of the price.

   Synonyms:

   deduct, take off, abate, bate, remove, subduct, subtract, take, take away

3. (transitive) To make a copy of, as of a design.
   • They send people to the shows in Milan for "ideas", which means knocking off the designs they guess would sell.
   • Whipping up a healthy breakfast has never been easier. Neither has knocking off your fave Starbucks snack either, thanks to this TikTok-approved egg bite maker.2024 October 8, Lauren Gruber, Megan Uy, “We Found Sooo Many Viral TikTok Items on Sale for October Prime Day”, in Cosmopolitan

   Synonyms:

   plagiarize, rip off

4. (transitive) To assign (an item) to a bidder at an auction, indicated by knocking on the counter.
5. (informal, transitive) To accomplish hastily.
   • I knocked off a couple of quick sketches before the design meeting.

   Synonyms:

   knock out

6. (ambitransitive, slang) To halt one's work or other activity.
   • I think I'll knock off for the evening and go to bed.
   • As a matter of fact, I'm only waiting for my mate to knock off for breakfast.1927, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], Max Carrados Mysteries

   Synonyms:

   call it a day, call it a night, down tools

7. (slang, transitive) To kill.
   • The mobsters hired the guy to knock off their enemies.
   • "The point is, Michael has tried to get some research going into a method of knocking off triffids scientifically. That has to be found if we are going to get anywhere at all."1951, John Wyndham, The Day of the Triffids, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, published 1954, page 258

   Synonyms:

   bump off, do away with, whack, annihilate, bag, baptize, bereave of life, blight, bring down, bury

   1. (broadly, slang, transitive) To defeat.
      • The Hammers knocked off Arsenal on the strength of a 78th-minute tally from Jarrod Bowen.
8. (slang, transitive) To rob.
   • They decided to knock off a liquor store downtown.

   Synonyms:

   mill, burgle, steal, abduct, abstract, appropriate, bag, bandit, bash and grab, bone

9. (UK, slang, transitive, vulgar) To have sex with (a woman).
   • I took her down to Basin Street and to a movie, then took her to my room and knocked her off.1965, Claude Brown, Manchild in the Promised Land

   Synonyms:

   coitize, go to bed with, sleep with, Formal terms, bed, coit, dight, enjoy, feague, go in unto