Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to choose, to nominate someone [the chairman at a dinner knocking with a hammer before announcing a speaker].

1759		O. Goldsmith ‘A Description of Various Clubs’ Coll. Works (1966) III 12: The president vainly knocked down Mr. Leathersides for a song.
1773		O. Goldsmith She Stoops to Conquer Act I: Now, gentlemen, silence is a song. the ’squire is going to knock himself down for a song.
1789		G. Parker Life’s Painter 137: He was knocked down for the crap the last sessions.
1830		Lytton Paul Clifford I 220: Well, don’t be humdurgeoned, but knock down a gemman.
1838		‘Alfred Crowquill’ Seymour’s Humourous Sketches (1866) 69: The hammer of the president rapped them to order, and ‘knocked down’ Sniggs for a song.
1866		C. Reade Griffith Gaunt I 242: They ‘knocked him down’ for a song [...] Soon after they ‘knocked him down’ for a story.

2. (orig. US) to drink.

1821		‘A Real Paddy’ Real Life in Ireland 194: Captain Blake knocked up as fine a jug of whiskey punch as ever three hearty fellows knocked down.
1832		Satirist (London) 22 July 239/2: The hock-tioneer, as the chairman designated Cauty, declared the claret to be superior to any thing he had knocked down for months.
1860		J.G. Holland Miss Gilbert’s Career (1870) 153: Now, tell a feller, is there any chance to knock down?
1966		T. Keyes All Night Stand 54: It was Gerry and me that was knocking them down.
1988		McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 66/2: knockdown to drain a glass of a beverage, usually alcoholic, mostly beer.
1992		G.P. Pelecanos Firing Offense 126: ‘Why don’t we set up on the porch and knock down those beers’.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988].
2009		L. Levitt NYPD Confidentiial 131: Timoney went to lunch at the South Street Seaport, where he knocked down a couple of beers.

3. (UK und.) to sentence to prison or transportation.

1833		[T. Wontner] Old Bailey Experience 214: The old Recorder will now knock a man down for transportation.
1838		‘Paul Pry’ Oddities of London Life I 58: Why you was tried last sessions at the Old Bailey, [...] for ‘starring a glaze,’ and got knocked down for seven-penn’orth.

4. to treat (to a drink).

1844

New Sprees of London 13: This is a casey of the swell resort, where a good glass of grog may be had, and a select company. Here a chairman knocks his friends down with a mighty agreeable grace.

5. (Aus./N.Z.) to spend all of one’s money on a celebration; thus knock down a cheque, drink out a cheque, to spend an entire season’s pay cheque on a single drinking bout.

1849		J.P. Townsend Rambles in New South Wales 212: They [...] travel down the country to the nearest public house and ‘knock their money down.’.
1860		Melbourne Punch 2 Aug. 181/2: His greatest story is that of himself and Bill Smith having ‘knocked down’ [a] £100 note each, before rising, (at a bush public-house).
1861		N.E. Police Gaz. (Boston, MA) 12 Oct. 3/2: [He] knocks down enough ‘spondulix’ to keep her looking well .
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor I 424/2: They’d knocked down all their tin lushing.
1867		Queenslander (Brisbane) 15 June n.p.: It is this sad practice of ‘knocking down’ their money which causes the vagrancy.
1871		Illus. Sydney News 23 Dec. 10/2: Everyone flocks into the up-country towns to ‘knock down’ his cheque and have a jollification.
1880		‘Erro’ Squattermania 47: ‘Are you going to shout, Billy? [...] why, I thought you’d drunk your cheque out long ago.’ ‘No, my boys,’ said Billy; ‘I haven’t knocked it all down yet.’.
1885		J.S. Borlase Blue Cap, the Bushranger 41/1: The man [...] handed over to Jacky his thirty [...] one pound notes, telling him to ‘let him know when that was knocked down’.
1893		F. Adams Australians 168: He ‘knocks down’ the squattorial cheque and requests to be kept drunk so long as it lasts.
1901		‘Rolf Boldrewood’ In Bad Company 4: When she thought of the way other women’s husbands ‘knocked down’ their money after shearing, forty and fifty pounds, even more, in a week’s drunken bout.
1901		H. Lawson ‘Lord Douglas’ in Roderick (1972) 493: He got One-Eyed Bogan ‘three months’ hard’ for taking a bottle of whisky [...] because he (Bogan) was drunk and thirsty and had knocked down his cheque.
1905		‘On the Road to Gundagai’ in ‘Banjo’ Paterson Old Bush Songs 25: In a week the spree was over and the cheque was all knocked down.
1911		A. Wright Gamblers’ Gold (1931) 104: ‘Been on a jamboree, mate?’ [...] ‘Something like that. Knocked down a cheque in Germanton.’.
1955		N. Pulliam I Travelled a Lonely Land (1957) 235/1: knockdown [...] – to spend money freely.
1965		B. Wannan Fair Go, Spinner 63: We knocked our cheques down at this shanty, and was ‘humping bluey’ again.
1988		McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 66/2: knock down to spend freely, particularly on drink.
1999		G. Seal Lingo 160: to knock down is to spend your money, as in knock down a cheque.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988].

6. (Aus./N.Z.) to make an introduction; thus knock one down to, to introduce, e.g. knock me down to that daisy, introduce me to that woman.

1890		Sporting Times 11 Jan. 2: Such a dull place as this I have not seen before, / I’ve not knocked down the polis for three weeks or more.
1890		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 11 Jan. 2/4: ‘Know Yohe! Of course I know Yohe, dear boy. Why, l know every girl in the “Crystal Slipper.” I’Il l knock you down to anyone of them, boys’ .
1908		L.W. Payne Jr ‘Word-List From East Alabama’ in DN III:iv 327: knock-down, v. To introduce. ‘I’ll knock you down to that girl.’.
1916		J.C. Ruppenthal ‘A Word-List From Kansas’ in DN IV v 325: knock down, v. To introduce (one person to another) [...] ‘I was knocked down to about dozen girls at the dance.’.
1935		Z.N. Hurston Mules and Men (1995) 65: Mah name is Pitts and Ah’m sho glad to meet yuh. Ah asted Cliffert tuh knock me down tuh yuh but he wouldn’t make me ’quainted. So Ah’m makin’ mahseff ’quainted.
1944		D. Burley Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive 15: He was knocking her down to his stash in life.
1959		D. Niland Gold in the Streets (1966) 208: Showing me the haunts [...] knocking me down to the big smells.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl.

7. in context of monetary gain.

8. (US) to reject, to over-rule.

1969		H. Rap Brown Die, Nigger Die! 118: Kunstler appealed the bond and eventually the $100,000 was knocked down to $30,000.
1973		P. Maas Serpico 114: ‘What the hell,’ the plainclothesman would say, ‘the judge’ll knock it [i.e. an arrest based on corrupt practise] down anyway’.

9. (US prison) to serve a sentence.

a.1994

N. McCall Makes Me Wanna Holler (1995) 203: I’d knocked down more than two years in the joint and had less than one to go.

10. (US black) to have sexual intercourse.

2000

Ebonics Primer at www.dolemite.com 🌐 knock down Definition: to have sexual intercourse Example: Last night I knocked down two bitches.