GNU Collaborative International Dictionary of English

last match results

Found 4 definitions

1.       
   backfire, back fire. 
   A fire started ahead of a forest or prairie fire to burn only against the wind, so that when the two fires meet both must go out for lack of fuel.
   Webster 1913 Suppl.
   (a) A premature explosion in the cylinder of a gas or oil engine during the exhaust or the compression stroke, tending to drive the piston in a direction reverse to that in which it should travel; also called a knock or ping. (b) an explosion in the exhaust passages of an internal combustion engine.
   Webster 1913 Suppl.
   +PJC
         
       

2.       
   Knock , v. i. [imp. & p. p. Knocked ; p. pr. & vb. n. Knocking.] [OE. knoken, AS. cnocian, cnucian; prob. of imitative origin; cf. Sw. knacka. Cf. Knack.]
   To drive or be driven against something; to strike against something; to clash; as, one heavy body knocks against another.
   Bacon.
   
   1913 Webster
   To strike or beat with something hard or heavy; to rap; as, to knock with a club; to knock on the door.
   1913 Webster
   For harbor at a thousand doors they knocked.
   Dryden.
   
   1913 Webster
   Seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.
   Matt. vii. 7.
   
   1913 Webster
   To practice evil speaking or fault-finding; to criticize habitually or captiously. [Slang, U. S.]
   Webster 1913 Suppl.
   To knock about, to go about, taking knocks or rough usage; to wander about; to saunter. [Colloq.] “Knocking about town.” W. Irving. -- To knock up, to fail of strength; to become wearied or worn out, as with labor; to give out. “The horses were beginning to knock up under the fatigue of such severe service.” De Quincey. -- To knock off, to cease, as from work; to desist. -- To knock under, to yield; to submit; to acknowledge one's self conquered; -- an expression probably borrowed from the practice of knocking under the table with the knuckles, when conquered. “Colonel Esmond knocked under to his fate.” Thackeray.
   1913 Webster
   
         
       

3.       
   Knock , v. t.
   To strike with something hard or heavy; to move by striking; to drive (a thing) against something; as, to knock a ball with a bat; to knock the head against a post; to knock a lamp off the table.
   1913 Webster
   When heroes knock their knotty heads together.
   Rowe.
   
   1913 Webster
   To strike for admittance; to rap upon, as a door.
   1913 Webster
   Master, knock the door hard.
   Shak.
   
   1913 Webster
   To impress strongly or forcibly; to astonish; to move to admiration or applause. [Slang, Eng.]
   Webster 1913 Suppl.
   To criticise; to find fault with; to disparage. “Don't knock it if you haven't tried it.”
   PJC
   To knock in the head, or To knock on the head, to stun or kill by a blow upon the head; hence, to put am end to; to defeat, as a scheme or project; to frustrate; to quash. [Colloq.] -- To knock off. (a) To force off by a blow or by beating. (b) To assign to a bidder at an auction, by a blow on the counter. (c) To leave off (work, etc.). [Colloq.] -- To knock out, to force out by a blow or by blows; as, to knock out the brains. -- To knock up. (a) To arouse by knocking. (b) To beat or tire out; to fatigue till unable to do more; as, the men were entirely knocked up. [Colloq.] “The day being exceedingly hot, the want of food had knocked up my followers.” Petherick. (c) (Bookbinding) To make even at the edges, or to shape into book form, as printed sheets. (d) To make pregnant. Often used in passive, "she got knocked up". [vulgar]
         
       

4.       
   Knock, n.
   A blow; a stroke with something hard or heavy; a jar.
   1913 Webster
   A stroke, as on a door for admittance; a rap. “ A knock at the door.”
   Longfellow.
   
   1913 Webster
   A loud cry or some great knock.
   Holland.
   
   1913 Webster
   Knock off, See knock off in the vocabulary.
   PJC