no-knock

[noh-nok]

adjective

1. Law.,  relating to or denoting a policy that authorizes law-enforcement officers to enter premises unannounced and without identifying themselves.

   On the basis of an anonymous tip, the police had obtained a no-knock search warrant for drugs.

2. antiknock.

Word History and Origins

Origin of no-knock¹

An Americanism dating back to 1965–70

Example Sentences

The case echoes many others—including the shooting deaths of Breonna Taylor in Lexington, Kentucky, and Atatiana Jefferson in Fort Worth, Texas—in which law enforcement’s use of “no-knock warrants” has gone horribly wrong.

Read more on Slate

That ICE, or Immigration and Customs Enforcement, pushes the bounds of legality in its no-knock roundups is pretty obvious.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

She was killed after officers in plain clothes executed a "no-knock" search warrant at her home.

Read more on BBC

Taylor was killed after officers wearing plain clothes executed a "no-knock" search warrant at her home.

Read more on BBC

After a series of intense exchanges, several administration officials — led by Vanita Gupta, the associate attorney general at the time — stepped in to rewrite the language while leaving in the substance of the proposals, including a call to revise use-of-force policies and to restrict chokeholds and no-knock warrants.

Read more on New York Times