knockabout
Nautical. any of various fore-and-aft-rigged sailing vessels having a single jib bent to a stay from the stemhead, no bowsprit being used: usually rigged as a sloop.
something designed or suitable for rough or casual use, as a sturdy jacket, a secondhand car, etc.
a slapstick comedian or comedy.
Australian. an itinerant farm hand or ranch hand; an itinerant handyman.
British Archaic. wanderer.
suitable for rough use, as a garment: a knockabout jacket and jeans.
characterized by knocking about; rough; boisterous.
slapstick: knockabout comedy.
shiftless; aimless: a knockabout kind of person.
Origin of knockabout
1Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use knockabout in a sentence
We have tastes in common; for instance, we do not like knock-about brothers at a music-hall—they bore us.
Castellinaria | Henry Festing JonesCertainly Edward Pierson shrank from the rough touches of a knock-about philosophy.
Saint's Progress | John GalsworthyHe has collected his knock-about money, his shearing, and his harvest money about the end of January.
The Crooked Stick | Rolf BoldrewoodThere's a knock-about pantomime outfit at the Canterbury—Martinetti I think the name is—that's damned good.
The Market-Place | Harold FredericJones brought me home on that neat little knock-about spad he's just bought.
British Dictionary definitions for knock about
(intr, adverb) to wander about aimlessly
(intr, preposition) to travel about, esp as resulting in varied or exotic experience: he's knocked about the world a bit
(intr, adverb foll by with) to associate: to knock about with a gang
(tr, adverb) to treat brutally: he knocks his wife about
(tr, adverb) to consider or discuss informally: to knock an idea about
a sailing vessel, usually sloop-rigged, without a bowsprit and with a single jib
rough; boisterous: knockabout farce
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Other Idioms and Phrases with knockabout
Also, knock around.
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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