knockabout

[ nok-uh-bout ]

noun

1. 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.
2. something designed or suitable for rough or casual use, as a sturdy jacket, a secondhand car, etc.
3. a slapstick comedian or comedy.
4. Australian. an itinerant farm hand or ranch hand; an itinerant handyman.
5. British Archaic. wanderer.

adjective

1. suitable for rough use, as a garment:

   a knockabout jacket and jeans.

2. characterized by knocking about; rough; boisterous.
3. slapstick:

   knockabout comedy.

4. shiftless; aimless:

   a knockabout kind of person.

Word History and Origins

Origin of knockabout¹

First recorded in 1875–80; noun, adj. use of verb phrase knock about

Example Sentences

Doug transports this knockabout grace into “The Mark of Zorro.”

From Washington Post

She kept the jeans on for her knockabout, but changed her heels for sneakers and slipped into a grey team GB fleece.

From The Daily Beast

I suppose a knockabout like myself gets all the taste for the fine arts knocked out of him.

From Project Gutenberg

If 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.

From Project Gutenberg

Having settled myself, or my property rather, I put on my knockabout clothes and went out for a walk.

From Project Gutenberg

At first the set was content with giving a sort of low comedian, knockabout performance.

From Project Gutenberg

During that first engagement with the Burr Robbins show I was what was called a “talking and knockabout clown.”

From Project Gutenberg