Green’s Dictionary of Slang

to be aware, to be knowledgeable.

[c.1597		Shakespeare Henry IV Pt 1 II i: I know a trick worth two of that, i’ faith].
a.1790		C. Dibdin ‘Patrick O’Row’ in Collection of Songs II 53: Let the Spaniards come on when they please, / Devil burn me we’d teach them a thing or two.
1792		Sporting Mag. Nov. I 99/1: Our Publisher, ‘who’ (as O’Keefe says), ‘knows a thing or two,’ thought to differ.
1810		C. Dibdin Jew Pedlar 1: I knows an odd Trick or two as vell as de best of you.
1821		R. Waln Hermit in America on Visit to Phila. 2nd series 30: No, flats in Co.—all up to a thing or two.
1824		Sir W. Scott St Ronan’s Well (1833) 373: I am a raw Scottishman, Captain Jekyll, it is true; but yet I know a thing or two.
1835		D. Crockett Col. Crockett’s Tour to North and Down East 122: I think old George Wolf knows a thing or two.
1837		Disraeli Venetia III 178: I think I can show them a trick or two still.
1839		Crim.-Con. Gaz. 18 May 155/1: ‘I know a thing or two [...] and those Lunnuners must get up very early in the morning to do me’.
1843		R. Carlton New Purchase I 216: Our folks, who had, indeed, seen ‘a thing or two’ in cabin cookery.
1845		W.T. Thompson Chronicles of Pineville 21: The doctor was on the spot, but he had been to Augusta and knew a thing or two about circuses.
1847		Era 28 Mar. 10/1: Billy was up to a thing or two.
1853		Woodville Courier (MS) 1 Feb. 1/2: De ole Virginy nigger, / He know a ting or two.
1856		C. Reade It Is Never Too Late to Mend 1 306: ‘You know a thing or two,’ whined the doleful Fry.
c.1858		J.H. Green Reformed Gambler 126: ‘Patch-coat’ was such an one as would naturally make a man suspicion him for ‘knowing a thing or two’.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor (1968) II 368/1: I was accompanied by the master of the house, to whom I had been recommended by one of the fraternity as an intelligent man, and one who knew ‘a thing or two’.
1873		W.L. Rede ‘I’m a Young Man Most Highly Respectable’ 🎵 I want a valet that’s down to a thing or two.
1878		J. Hatton Cruel London I 128: Yes, I’ve seen a thing or two.
1880		Worcs Chron. 6 Nov. 3/1: Why should I acquire of you, sir, / Things I do not care about, / When I’d ‘learn a thing or two, sir,’ / When I’d ‘know my way about?’.
1887		W.S. Gilbert ‘Gentle Alice Brown’ Fifty ‘Bab’ Ballads 141: I’ve studied human nature, and I know a thing or two.
1887		W.T. Call Josh Hayseed in N.Y. 63: I’ll tell you chaps a thing or two.
1892		E.J. Milliken ’Arry Ballads 13: He did know a thing or two.
1903		A. Adams Log Of A Cowboy 360: The old gent knew a thing or two about horses.
1906		Warwick Examiner & Times (St Lucia, Qld) 16 May 8/2: Their father declaring that he would show that ‘dod-gasted’ teacher a thing or two, slapped the girl’s face.
1908		Arizona Sentinel 6 May 2/4: The President has said [...] he has ‘shown them a thing or two’.
1907		J. London Road 96: But as the prison days went by [...] I ‘learned a few’.
1911		Gem 16 Sept. 6: George Washington knew a thing or two, you know.
1914		E. Pugh Cockney At Home 198: Men are the only animals that I claim to know a thing or six about.
1916		T. Burke Limehouse Nights 59: It was legendary in Limehouse that old Kang Foo Ah knew a thing or three.
1929		J.B. Priestley Good Companions 24: Ted [...] admitted that he knocked about a bit and knew a thing or two.
1936		J.T. Farrell World I Never Made 179: He’d just like to tell that thickhead a thing or two.
1937		E. Garnett Family from One End Street 76: That cove knew a thing or two!
1937		J. Worby Other Half 51: You can sure teach me a thing or two.
1943		‘Myles na gCopaleen’ Faustus Kelly in ‘Flann O’Brien’ Stories & Plays (1973) 154: I happen to know a thing or two.
1943		R. Llewellyn None But the Lonely Heart 121: He’d get learnt a thing or two.
1944		‘F. Bonnamy’ A Rope of Sand (1947) 185: I could still teach him a thing or two.
1947		J. Steinbeck Wayward Bus 175: She’d show him a thing or two.
1954		T.A.G. Hungerford Sowers of the Wind 5: I’ll think of you slaving your guts out while I’m teaching some little slit-eye a thing or two.
1960		(con. c.1928) D. Holman-Hunt My Grandmothers and I (1987) 164: The old Guvnor knew a thing or two and brought off a double.
1960		G.W. Target Teachers (1962) 188: I could tell you a thing or three.
1961		T.I. Rubin In the Life 80: Boy, I could tell you a thing or two about some of these guys!
1972		D. Pendleton Boston Blitz (1974) 58: Trantham knew a thing or two about scared punks.
1977		(con. 1940s) O. Manning Danger Tree 74: I see you know a thing or two.
1990		M. McAlary Crack War (1991) 14: He could read a book and he knew a thing or two about the law.
2000		Indep. 8 Jan. 5: Ronaldo is a young man but he knows a thing or two about beautiful women.
2000		M. Amis Experience 344: Bernard knows a thing or two.