Knock out means to make someone unconscious, usually with a blow. In conversation people also say it about strong medicine or tiredness: The flu knocked me out. The second meaning is to eliminate a player or team from a competition: be knocked out of the cup.
Want to use knock out in conversation?
Write a sentence — we'll show the mistakes right away and suggest how to say it more naturally.
The check is taking longer than usual. Your feedback will appear here automatically.
knock + sb + out; be knocked out (of + competition); sth knocks you out
- The cold medicine knocked me out, and I slept for twelve hours.
- He fell off his bike, hit his head and was knocked out for a few seconds.
- Our team was knocked out of the cup in the second round.
What changed
First versionOur team was knocked out from the tournament in the semi-final.
RevisionOur team was knocked out of the tournament in the semi-final.
From can seem right for leaving a tournament, but after out English needs of: out of the tournament, as in out of the room. From isn't used after out here.
Knock off means to knock something off a surface: The cat knocked my phone off the table. Knock out means to “switch off” a person with a blow or medicine, or to put them out of a contest. So pills knock you out, but the cat knocks things off.
Your turn
The pills for my cold were so strong that they ___ for the whole afternoon.
Show the answer
knocked me out — The strong pills knocked the speaker out for half a day: knocked me out. Knocked me off would mean someone knocked you off something, like a bike.
Describe a competition you followed or took part in. Say at what stage someone was knocked out and who knocked them out.
At the chess club tournament last spring, I was knocked out in the quarter-final by a twelve-year-old girl.
Learn to use new words without mistakes
Write phrases with the words you are learning. LetsWords shows mistakes in usage and grammar, suggests corrections and explains them, and review helps the words stick.