Other forms: knocked, knocking, knocks
To knock is to hit something with your knuckles so it makes a sound — a door, so the people inside know you are there. Three taps and a pause, the knock the postman gives before leaving the parcel on the step.
You knock ON a door, or AT it. The noun is the sound itself, a knock at the door, and it stretches to a setback: the business took a knock last winter. The phrasal verbs do most of the work — knock over a glass, knock down an old building, knock out an opponent, knock off at five, knock ten pounds off the price. Knock it off means stop that. One to handle with care: knock up is innocent in Britain, where you knock up a quick meal, and means to make someone pregnant in American slang.
1verbknockTo hit a door or window with your hand so that people inside hear you.~27%
“Knock twice and wait; the bell has never worked.”
2verbmovesTo hit something so that it moves or falls.~67%
“He knocked the vase off the shelf with his elbow.”
3nounshortA short sharp sound made by hitting something.~2%
“There was a knock at the door just after midnight.”
4nounblowA blow, or a setback.~2%
“Her confidence took a knock after the interview.”
5verbcriticiseTo criticise something.~2%
“Do not knock it until you have tried it.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 15 sentences found in the wild and placed 7 of them on a sense (8 were unclear) — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
Old English cnocian meant to knock, pound or beat — a word built to sound like the thing it names. It comes from Proto-Germanic *knukōną, on a root meaning to pound or beat, and it is family with knuckle, which is what you knock with.
Proto-Indo-European
*gnew-
Proto-Germanic
*knukōną — to knock
Proto-West Germanic
*knokōn
Old English
cnocian
Middle English
knokken
English, today
knock
Built from
From Middle English knokken, from Old English cnocian, ġecnocian, ġecnucian, cnucian (“to knock, pound on, beat”), from Proto-West Germanic knokōn, from Proto-Germanic knukōną (“to knock”), a suffixed form of knu-, knew- (“to pound on, beat”), from Proto-Indo-European gnew-, gen- (“to squeeze, pinch, kink, ball up, concentrate”). The English word is cognate with Middle High German knochen (“to hit”), Old English cnuian, cnuwian (“to pound, knock”), Old Norse knoka (compare Danish knuge (“to squeeze”), Swedish knocka (“to hug”)). More at knuckle.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA