Dictionary

knock under en · VERB

Etymology

Perhaps from the old practice of knocking under the table with the knuckles, when conquered. Compare knuckle under

Meanings

1. (dated, intransitive) To acknowledge oneself conquered; to submit, to yield.
   • When he heard this news of Beatrix's engagement, Colonel Eſmond knocked under to his fate, and reſolved to ſurrender his ſword, that could win him nothing now he cared for; […] 1852, William Makepeace Thackeray, “I Come to an End of My Battles and Bruises”, in The History of Henry Esmond, Esq. […] , volume III, London: […] Smith, Elder, & Company, […], →OCLC, page 4:
   • I pull the second best trigger in this county. I knock under to Natty Bumppo there, sin' he shot the pigeon. 1823, [James Fenimore Cooper], chapter XIV, in The Pioneers, or The Sources of the Susquehanna; […], volume II, New York, N.Y.: Charles Wiley; […], →OCLC, page 209:
2. (dated, intransitive, slang) To die.

Forms