Skip to Content
English Club : Learn English : English Language Reference
Reference : Slang : K : knock off (2)

< Previous | Next >

knock off (2)

Meaning: to kill someone, to murder someone

For example:

  • If you knock someone off in the U.S.A, you could get capital punishment and die in the electric chair or by lethal injection.

  • Truman Capote's great novel "In Cold Blood" is about two young guys who knock off a whole family in their home while trying to rob them.

Note: The phrasal verb "knock off" can take a subject between the verb and the preposition, as in "to knock somebody off", or it can take a subject after the preposition, as in "to knock off somebody".

Quick Quiz:

The woman who lived next door knocked her husband off by
  1. cooking his dinner
  2. poisoning his dinner
  3. nagging him to death

Discuss: knock off (2)

Slang of the Day

This entry is in the following categories: