Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also knock round) to wander, to travel aimlessly [20C+ use is SE].

1847		G.F. Ruxton Scenes in the Far West 117: He had been knocking around all day in every grog-shop and bar-room in town [...] [F&H].
1856		Life in Boston & N.Y. (Boston, MA) 25 Oct. n.p.: I would advise R R—t [...] not to knock round [...] after those negro wenches .
1875		Capt. Boyton in Gent’s Mag. 283 June 717: I was hungry for a litle quiet after knocking round so long.
1887		G. Devol Forty Years a Gambler 194: I knocked around for about half an hour [...] and resolved to try my luck again.
1893		H. Lawson ‘Another of Mitchell’s Plans for the Future’ in Roderick (1972) 136: I knocked around a good deal down there among the farms.
1902		Ade Forty Modern Fables 191: The Man who had been knocking around for Thirty-eight Years.
1905		Sun. Times (Perth) 28 May 4/7: There ain’t no room at the club. There ain’t no room at the restaurant / Because I have no pay-day, / SoI’m knocking around the streets, / I’m knocking around alway; / I’m knockin’ around, knockin’ around, / And I’m dead weary o’ knockin’ around.
1910		‘O. Henry’ ‘The Venturers’ in Strictly Business (1915) 293: I’m going to knock around the world.
1911		Deloraine & Westbury Advertiser (Hobart, Tas.) 21 Jan. 3/2: Half-castes, Malays and the dirty white trash you always find knocking around such townships.
1913		J. London Valley of the Moon (1914) 45: I don’t knock around down this way much.
1915		Z. Grey Rainbow Trail (1961) 6: Wish more travelers came knocking around Red Lake.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 72: Well, glad to see you looking fit, he said. Meet you knocking around.
1935		C. Drew ‘Zarko Assassin’ in Bulletin 23 Oct. 48/3: ‘The real Zarko Assassin won’t be knockin’ around in the country’.
1935		Z.N. Hurston Mules and Men (1995) 26: He knocked around lak dat for ten years and then he seen his brother. De big preacher says, ‘Brother, you don’t look like you gittin’ holt of much.’.
1948		(con. 1944) N. Mailer Naked and Dead 14: Ugly incidents out of the years he had knocked around.
1955		T. Williams Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Act II: I knocked around in my time [...] I bummed, I bummed this country till I was —.
1959		D. Niland Big Smoke 44: She had knocked around and been knocked around.
1968		T. Wolfe Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1969) 37: He had [...] knocked around Hollywood for a while with the idea of becoming a movie star.
1977		(con. 1960s) D. Goines Black Gangster (1991) 87: Look like that kid has knocked around with the law before.
1985		B. Humphries Traveller’s Tool 19: All I can say is that I’ve knocked around the traps.
2021		Breen & Conlon Hitmen 61: Gilroy [...] was still knocking around Dublin.

2. to associate with.

1884		J. Harrison ‘Negro English’ in Anglia VII 263: To knock ’roun’ de gals = to visit the girls.
1910		Bulletin (Sydney) 27 Oct. 14/1: Yes; it’s just prejudice. I’ve met plenty chaps who reckoned I was good enough to knock round and have a drink with until they found out I was the hangman – then they used to dodge me.
1926		K.S. Prichard Working Bullocks 93: It was thought a pity a good lump of a young fellow like Aggie Graeme should be knocking round with Barney Brennan.
1936		J. Curtis Gilt Kid 120: Plenty of dough, plenty of wallop, a pretty jane to knock around with.
1949		R. Park Poor Man’s Orange 205: He’s been knocking around with her for months.
1955		D. Niland Shiralee 138: You’d be a good mate to knock round with.
1963		‘Nino Culotta’ Gone Fishin’ 25: Queer-lookin’ mob she knocks around with, but.
1970		T. Parker Frying-Pan 4: The blokes I was knocking around with, if we wanted something, we went and pinched it.
1986		J.B. Keane Bodhrán Makers 152: Well, that’s the lady he’s knocking around with lately.
1998		G. Burn Happy Like Murderers 282: He had been knocking around with a thirteen-year-old who had a brother who was a bouncer.
2001		K. Waterhouse Soho 136: That Simon you’re knocking around with? What’s he been doing?