knockabout
Americannoun
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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.
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something designed or suitable for rough or casual use, as a sturdy jacket, a secondhand car, etc.
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a slapstick comedian or comedy.
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Australian. an itinerant farm hand or ranch hand; an itinerant handyman.
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British Archaic. wanderer.
adjective
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suitable for rough use, as a garment.
a knockabout jacket and jeans.
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characterized by knocking about; rough; boisterous.
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slapstick.
knockabout comedy.
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shiftless; aimless.
a knockabout kind of person.
Etymology
Origin of knockabout
First recorded in 1875–80; noun, adj. use of verb phrase knock about
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
His adaptation maintains a knockabout, almost farcical pace.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 31, 2026
There has been great analysis and the usual knockabout stuff that is essential to Calcutta Cup week, but the hot takes in the build-up have bordered on the barmy.
From BBC ● Feb. 21, 2025
The members of the controversial rap group Kneecap play themselves in a witty knockabout comedy, a Sundance hit, that tells the tale of their ongoing rise.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 2, 2024
The son of a butcher who had fled Nazi Germany, Mr. Caan grew up in the 1940s and 1950s on the knockabout streets of the outer boroughs of New York.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 7, 2022
Like we was old knockabout friends of the streets.
From "The Whipping Boy" by Sid Fleischman
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
