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
1Words Nearby knockabout
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use knockabout in a sentence
Doug transports this knockabout grace into “The Mark of Zorro.”
Zorro at 100: Why the original swashbuckler is still the quintessential American action hero | Michael Sragow | January 1, 2021 | Washington PostShe kept the jeans on for her knockabout, but changed her heels for sneakers and slipped into a grey team GB fleece.
I suppose a knockabout like myself gets all the taste for the fine arts knocked out of him.
A Frontier Mystery | Bertram MitfordIf all was as I hardly dared to hope, I would give up my present knockabout life, and take a good farm somewhere and settle down.
A Frontier Mystery | Bertram MitfordHaving settled myself, or my property rather, I put on my knockabout clothes and went out for a walk.
The People of the Abyss | Jack London
At first the set was content with giving a sort of low comedian, knockabout performance.
The Loom of Youth | Alec WaughDuring that first engagement with the Burr Robbins show I was what was called a “talking and knockabout clown.”
The Autobiography of a Clown | Isaac Frederick Marcosson
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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