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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

knock the living daylights out of en · VERB

Pronunciation

Meanings

  1. (idiomatic) To beat or strike someone.
    • Boy, the fellows said he just knocked the living daylights out of him, bounced him six feet across the ground. 1939, Ruth McKenney, Industrial Valley, →ISBN, page 255:
  2. (idiomatic) To thoroughly and decisively defeat someone in a physical fight, especially by knocking out that person.
    • He won the English championship from the six-foot-three-inch, seventeen-stone Sam Hurst, the Staleybridge Infant, knocking the living daylights out of this champion 1954, Denzil Batchelor, Big Fight: The Story of World Championship Boxing, →OCLC, page 65:
  3. (figuratively) To greatly excel against (someone or something).
    • ...where new and better depreciation regulations and a 7% business investment credit knocked the living daylights out of normal and historical accounting procedures... 1963, “10 second summary”, in Business Management, volume 25, page 38:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
knocked the living daylights out of Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part lexicographic
knocked the living daylights out of Tense=Past lexicographic
knocks the living daylights out of Number=Sing, Person=3, Tense=Pres lexicographic
beat the daylights out of alternative lexicographic
knock the daylights out of alternative lexicographic
knocking the living daylights out of Tense=Pres, VerbForm=Part lexicographic

Synonyms

clobber