| 释义 |
ˈknock-about, knockabout, a. and n.
[The phrase knock about (see knock v. 7), used attrib., and hence by ellipsis as n.]
A. adj.
1. a. Characterized by knocking about, or dealing blows; rough, violent, boisterous.
1885Pall Mall G. 4 Apr. 4/1 The rage for this knockabout sport [football]. 1891Ibid. 4 Aug. 7/1 Prize fights, and street-fights, and knockabout performances.
b. Theatr. slang. Of noisy and violent character. Also transf.
1892Daily News 10 May 3/4 The ‘knockabout’ character of sketches. 1893Times 25 Dec. 6/2 Two very droll and daring knock-about comedians. 1897G. Floyd in Compl. Cyclist vi. 156 The intelligent foreigner..imagines that the type of English humour is a knockabout entertainment. 1914A. Huxley Let. Feb. (1969) 57 The whole city is permeated with the Mission to Undergraduates—the Bp of Oxford being heard twice nightly in a knock-about sermon at St. Mary's. 1924J. Buchan Three Hostages xiii. 183 He liked plays with shooting in them, and knockabout farce. 1969New Yorker 31 May 110/2 His strong colloquial flavour and knock-about verbiage cannot be conveyed in French. 1974Daily Tel. 5 Oct. 16/1 One would have expected the argument in the Election campaign to have been conducted with a high level of rigour and seriousness, which would not be incompatible with some of the traditional knockabout fun.
2. a. Characterized by being driven to and fro, or wandering irregularly about.
1886Morris in Mackail Life (1809) II. 158 Such a knock⁓about day as I had on Monday! 1890Blackmore Kit III. xvi, A knockabout fellow swore to find out all about you.
b. Of a garment, etc.: Suitable for travelling or ‘knocking about’.
1880Echo 23 Nov. 4/4 Knockabout Corduroy Cloth. 1895M. E. Francis Daughter of Soil 130 Any make,..from knock-about suits to dress-clothes. 1900Daily Tel. 25 Aug. 3/2 Concocting with their own nimble fingers tasteful blouses, useful knockabout skirts, and dainty trifles of lace and muslin.
c. Australia. Applied to a labourer on a station who is ready to turn his hand to any kind of work. Cf. rouseabout n.
1876W. Harcus S. Australia 275 (Morris) Knockabout hands, 17s. to 20s. per week. 1890Boldrewood Col. Reformer xix, We're getting rather too many knockabout men for a small station like this.
3. a. N. Amer. Designating a class of sloop-rigged sailing-yacht (see quots. 1894, 1897); also, designating a sailing-yacht without a bowsprit. Also as n.
1894in Forest & Stream (1895) 12 Jan. 35/2 A knock⁓about boat is a seaworthy keel boat (not to include fin-keels) decked or half-decked, of fair accommodations, rigged simply, without bowsprit, and with only mainsail and one head sail. 1897Outing (U.S.) Dec. 235/1 The knockabout class, which originated in Boston a few seasons ago, has much to recommend it... It is free from all freakiness. It has no fin-keel... With a moderate sail area it is under control at all times... This class is limited to five hundred square feet of sail. All are keel-boats, and all must be under twenty-one feet on the load water-line. 1919Canad. Fisherman 695/1 The fine new knockabout schooner, General Haig, the first of her kind ever built here. 1970Amer. Neptune XXX. 196 The term knockabout soon was restricted to the type lacking a bowsprit and was further used attributively to designate any rig in which a long fore overhang took the place of a bowsprit. Ibid. 197 The single knock⁓about yawl was Arapahoe, built in 1893.
b. More generally, descriptive of small yachts or dinghies. Also as n.
1904[implied at sense 3 of the n.]. 1921Yachting Monthly XXXII. 105/2 The usual lug and mizen clinker built ‘knockabout’ boats, common to seaside watering places. 1970Motor Boat & Yachting 16 Oct. 39/2 It [sc. the balanced lug] is a powerful sail and very well suited to knockabout dinghies.
B. n.
1. Theatr. slang. A ‘knockabout’ performer or performance: see A. 1 b. Also transf.
1887Pall Mall G. 17 Sept. 3/2 Bounding brothers, knock⁓abouts, step-dancers. 1892Daily News 7 June 6/3 Singers, dancers, knockabouts, and quick-change artistes. 1899Ade Fables in Slang (1900) 83 These two Troupers began their Professional Career with a Road Circus..doing a Refined Knockabout in the Grand Concert or Afterpiece. 1930Observer 2 Mar. 15/3 The actors attack both the recitative and knockabout delightfully. 1955Times 9 Aug. 2/5 One called The Cold War, in which Mr. Wisdom, suffering from a fever, tries out different miraculous cures evincing immediately their different after-effects, is the most intricate piece of knockabout seen on the London stage for some time. 1959Ann. Reg. 1958 50 The proceedings were wound up by a forcible speech from the leader of the party, Mr Grimond, in a style of party-political knockabout in which he demonstrated that it was easier to abuse the other parties than to explain the purposes of one's own. 1970New Society 5 Mar. 406/3 For while there is some knockabout..most of the pieces here are technically of a high order.
2. Australia. A ‘knock-about’ man: see A. 2 c.
1889Boldrewood Robbery under Arms xvi, The knock⁓abouts and those other three chaps won't come it on us.
3. N. Amer. A ‘knock-about’ boat: see A. 3 a, b.
1904N.Y. Even. Post 21 May 6 There are numerous knockabouts and other small yachts in the Pawcatuck River. 1927G. Bradford Gloss. Sea Terms 96/1 Knock⁓about, a sloop or schooner without a bowsprit and whose jib sets from a stay at the stern.
4. A small motor vehicle for casual use.
1956W. H. Whyte Organization Man (1957) vi. 71 A little knock-about for the wife to run down to the station in. |