Watching the movie "True Lies" I heard the phrasal verb
He said he'd knock off 100 bucks.
It like lowering the price of something, but does knock off have more meanings? Like knock it off!? Is it related?
-
In the movie, the phrase means exactly "to lower the price by 100 dollars".– CowperKettleDec 13, 2015 at 13:15
-
Ah, but does it has more meanings?– Step AsideDec 13, 2015 at 13:23
-
1Wiktionary lists 8 verbal and 2 noun meanings, including a mention of possible non-idiomatic use (where "knock" and "off" work as separate words), and 3 derived expressions. Oh. And welcome to ELL!– CowperKettleDec 13, 2015 at 13:25
Add a comment
|
1 Answer
To knock off means
to quit doing something. Knock it off is often said to children to tell them to stop doing something annoying. Whatver is being asked to be "knocked off" in this sense is typically bothersome or annoying.
to decrease - the logical meaning is "taking something off of the top". While the thing being decreased isn't usually too annoying, it's usually something that is desired to be lowered, like a price.
Knock means to push or tap something, and knock off can still mean that, e.g. to push or tap something off of something else.
