knock the bottom out of

Idioms  

1. Also, knock the props out from under. Render invalid, undermine. For example, The discovery of another planet that might support life knocks the bottom out of many theories, or Jane's skilled debating knocked the props out from under her opponent. The first expression dates from the late 1800s, the variant from the first half of the 1900s.

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

knock the bottom out of

Ben Flesh may be corruptible, and Author Elkin's spendthrift talent some times threatens to knock the bottom out of the word market entirely.

From Time Magazine Archive

He had secured an injunction to restrain the Board from suspending his company on the grounds that suspension would force a reckless liquidation of the company's holdings, knock the bottom out of the grain market.

From Time Magazine Archive

The answer might well be yes—for these natural predispositions will knock the bottom out of much speciously logical reasoning about people.

From The Great Miss Driver by Anthony Hope

Some cleverer fellow one day will knock the bottom out of it, and see his way to explain what to a botanist without a theory to support must be very great difficulties.

From More Letters of Charles Darwin — Volume 1 by Sir Francis Darwin

It seemed to knock the bottom out of his whole theory that he who does right is always safe.

From Tom Slade with the Colors by Thomas Clarity

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Related Words

• erode
• frustrate
• hurt
• impair
• ruin
• sabotage
• sap
• subvert
• threaten
• thwart
• torpedo
• undercut
• weaken
• wreck

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