[nok-out] 
| 1. | an act or instance of knocking out. |
| 2. | the state or fact of being knocked out. |
| 3. | a knockout blow. |
| 4. | Informal. a person or thing overwhelmingly attractive, appealing, or successful. |
| 5. | a panel in a casing, can, or box, esp. of metal or plastic, so designed that it can readily be removed, as by punching, hammering, or cutting, to provide an opening into the interior: a knockout in a junction box. |
| 6. | Machinery. a device for knocking something loose, as finished work from a lathe chuck. |
| 7. | that knocks out: the knockout punch. |
| knock·out (nŏk'out') n.
Our Living Language : An attractive or exciting person or thing can colloquially be called a knockout. First used in the early 20th century, this expression comes from a metaphorical use of the boxing term knock out. The sport of boxing has produced many terms, such as lightweight, heavyweight and slap happy that have entered our everyday language. Two political candidates will square off at the beginning of a debate, an expression with origins in the 18th- and 19th-century rules by which fighters began each round facing each other across a one-yard square in the center of the ring. One of our political candidates might anticipate a comment by the other and so beat her to the punch. If a candidate is clearly losing a debate, he may be said to be on the ropes, and he could even suffer a knockout blow, after which he might throw in the sponge or towel and quit his candidacy. Or, before any of that happens, perhaps time will run out on the other candidate, and he will be saved by the bell. |
knockout
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