Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
{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.
Knock \Knock\ (n[o^]k), v. t.
1. 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.
When heroes knock their knotty heads together.
--Rowe.
2. To strike for admittance; to rap upon, as a door.
Master, knock the door hard. --Shak.
{To knock down}.
(a) To strike down; to fell; to prostrate by a blow or by
blows; as, to knock down an assailant.
(b) To assign to a bidder at an auction, by a blow or
knock; to knock off.
{To knock in the head}, or {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.