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
But there’s an infectious quality to the knockabout antics.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 1, 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
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
