1
as in stopping
to bring (as an action or operation) to an immediate end
knock it off!
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in abandoning
to stop doing (something) permanently
decided it was time to knock off telling fantastic fibs about her family background
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
3
as in subtracting
to take away (an amount or number) from a total
a proposal to knock 10 cents off the gasoline tax
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
4
as in robbing
to remove valuables from (a place) unlawfully
Bonnie and Clyde coped with the Great Depression by knocking off banks
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5
as in murdering
to put to death deliberately
various assassins have tried to knock off the dictator over the years
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of knocking off
After Dustin Gimbel, a California artist, called out Nordstrom for allegedly knocking off his sculptures with cardboard copies that were used in store displays, a resolution has been reached.
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Rosemary Feitelberg,
Footwear News,
18 June 2026
Shorten race distance by knocking off a couple of laps where needed, among other less-drastic tweaks.
—
Jerry Perez,
The Drive,
11 June 2026
Now three weeks into jogging on his full body weight, Kittle is looking forward to getting cleared for football movements — run blocking, pass protection, route running, and rust knocking off.
—
Cam Inman,
Mercury News,
4 June 2026
Chris Curry’s club got to this point by sweeping the Hattiesburg Regional, knocking off host Southern Miss on Friday and then beating Jacksonville State on Saturday and Sunday.
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Mitch Light,
New York Times,
3 June 2026
What wasn’t was Eastern Michigan and Oceanside’s Leovao twins first surviving Sunday’s stroke-play cut from 30 to 15 teams, then advancing to Tuesday morning’s quarterfinals, then knocking off Texas in dramatic fashion to reach the afternoon semis.
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Mark Zeigler,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
27 May 2026
Their reward for knocking off the second-best team in the conference was a short turnaround trip to high altitude to face the top team in Colorado.
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Jess Myers,
Twin Cities,
27 May 2026
Vegas has reached its fifth conference final in its nine-year existence by reeling off 15 wins in 20 games under Tortorella, knocking off Utah and then Anaheim in the playoffs.
—
Nate Peterson,
Denver Post,
19 May 2026
Atascocita rose to the occasion again, however, knocking off the Spartans in another overtime thriller.
—
Jon Poorman,
Houston Chronicle,
3 Apr. 2026
Rosemary Feitelberg,
Footwear News,
18 June 2026
Shorten race distance by knocking off a couple of laps where needed, among other less-drastic tweaks.
—
Jerry Perez,
The Drive,
11 June 2026
Now three weeks into jogging on his full body weight, Kittle is looking forward to getting cleared for football movements — run blocking, pass protection, route running, and rust knocking off.
—
Cam Inman,
Mercury News,
4 June 2026
Chris Curry’s club got to this point by sweeping the Hattiesburg Regional, knocking off host Southern Miss on Friday and then beating Jacksonville State on Saturday and Sunday.
—
Mitch Light,
New York Times,
3 June 2026
What wasn’t was Eastern Michigan and Oceanside’s Leovao twins first surviving Sunday’s stroke-play cut from 30 to 15 teams, then advancing to Tuesday morning’s quarterfinals, then knocking off Texas in dramatic fashion to reach the afternoon semis.
—
Mark Zeigler,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
27 May 2026
Their reward for knocking off the second-best team in the conference was a short turnaround trip to high altitude to face the top team in Colorado.
—
Jess Myers,
Twin Cities,
27 May 2026
Vegas has reached its fifth conference final in its nine-year existence by reeling off 15 wins in 20 games under Tortorella, knocking off Utah and then Anaheim in the playoffs.
—
Nate Peterson,
Denver Post,
19 May 2026
Atascocita rose to the occasion again, however, knocking off the Spartans in another overtime thriller.
—
Jon Poorman,
Houston Chronicle,
3 Apr. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for knocking off
Verb
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And the heat’s not stopping anytime soon.
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Video shows how chase led to deadly crash Instead of stopping, the purple car accelerated and sped through a red light, according to video from Joel’s dashboard camera.
Verb
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Now, following intense backlash from local communities, a series of lawsuits and a leadership shakeup at the Department of Homeland Security, the agency appears to be abandoning the initiative – a dramatic shift away from a plan that had already seen spending upwards of $1 billion.
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Driven by a growing panic over fast-evolving Chinese tech competitors, the old-world rivals are abandoning the tradition of corporate secrecy.
Verb
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Gross profit is revenue without subtracting the cost of production expenses.
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What did help ease respondent's minds, based on the survey results, was having a higher net worth, found by subtracting a household's liabilities from its assets.
Verb
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Also in 2007, Spencer was sentenced concurrently to seven years in prison for choking a woman, slamming her head to the ground, and robbing her of her cellphone, and for smashing into a woman's car and ransacking it, prosecutors said.
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Now that shares are hovering just above the company’s opening price, struggling to clear even the mid $150s by midday Wednesday, Musk’s net value has once again shrunk to a still-obscene $957 billion, according to Bloomberg‘s Billionaires Index, robbing him of his new honorific.
Verb
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The ruling handed down on Tuesday affirmed the judgment of a May 2025 hearing presided over by Cuyahoga County judge Nancy Margaret Russo, the same judge who found Shirilla guilty of murdering her boyfriend, Dominic Russo (no relation) and their friend, Davion Flanagan, in a 2022 car crash.
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Sam Worthington leads the series as David Burroughs, a father serving a life sentence for murdering his own son five years ago.
Verb
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And a whistle was called for offside, ending the counterattack.
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But that era is ending because memory is becoming the bottleneck.
Verb
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What most people forget is that in 2024, Congress passed a law banning the president from unilaterally quitting NATO without a 60-vote Senate majority or a change in the law.
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Fun platform has seen people pay strangers to perform life-altering tasks, like tattooing meme coins on their foreheads or quitting their jobs.
Verb
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After deducting their settlement fee and other charges, the net savings typically range from 20% to 25% of the original balance.
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Beginning in 2026, the rules surrounding deducting losses become even more penalizing.
Cite this Entry
“Knocking off.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/knocking%20off. Accessed 26 Jun. 2026.
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