knock around en · VERB
Pronunciation
- (US) audio
Etymology
From knock + around.
Meanings
-
(informal) Synonym of knock about.
I used to knock around with John when we were younger.
I’ve got some scissors knocking around somewhere in the kitchen.
He moved to go. / ― Well, glad to see you looking fit, he said. Meet you knocking around.
1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Episode 5: Lotus Eaters]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC, part II [Odyssey], page 72:I like to knock around the garden on Saturdays.
Film-making seems to run in the family. Charlie Spencer Chaplin and my great-grandmother were siblings, and my grandad used to knock around London with Charlie when they were lads.
2021 December 1, “Stop & Examine”, in Rail, number 945, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire: Bauer Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 71:It was known that he would knock his wife around when he had been drinking.
And Sylvia Beach, a fellow American and the fearless publisher of Ulysses, was still knocking around Paris willing to entertain questions.
2025 June 16, Eric Bulson, “Yes I Will Read ‘Ulysses’ Yes”, in The Atlantic, →ISSN:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| knocks around | Number=Sing, Person=3, Tense=Pres | lexicographic | |
| knocking around | Tense=Pres, VerbForm=Part | lexicographic | |
| knocked around | Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part | lexicographic | |
| knocked around | Tense=Past | lexicographic |