Fromknock(verb) +about.

• (Received Pronunciation)IPA^(key):/ˌnɒk əˈbaʊt/
• (General American)IPA^(key):/ˌnɑk əˈbaʊt/

• Audio(General American):

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• Rhymes:-aʊt

knockabout (third-person singular simple presentknocks about,present participleknocking about,simple past and past participleknocked about)(informal)

1. (transitive) Tohit (someone or something)all overrepeatedly; hence, tobehaveviolently towards ormistreat (someone or something).

   Synonyms:knock around,knock round

   It was known that he wouldknock his wifeabout when he had been drinking.

   • 1817 (date written), [Jane Austen], chapter III, inPersuasion; published inNorthanger Abbey: And Persuasion. […], volume III, London:John Murray, […], 20 December 1817 (indicated as 1818),→OCLC,page44:

     I never saw quite so wretched an example of what a sea-faring life can do; but to a degree, I know it is the same with them all: they are allknocked about, and exposed to every climate, and every weather, till they are not fit to be seen.

   • 1922 (date written; published1926),T[homas] E[dward] Lawrence, “Book VI: The Raid upon the Bridges. Chapter LXXVI.”, inSeven Pillars of Wisdom: A Triumph, Garden City, N.Y.:Doubleday, Doran & Company, published1937,→OCLC,page424:

     [Y]oung Mustafa refused to cook rice; Farraj and Daudknocked himabout until he cried;[…]

   • 2023 February 22, Stephen Roberts, “Reading … between the lines … to Wales”, inRail, number977, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire:Bauer Media,→ISSN,→OCLC, page56:

     The place also gotknocked about during the English Civil War, with "the spire [of its church] having been destroyed by the artillery of the Parliamentary forces".

2. (transitive) Toknock back a drink; to finish a drink.
3. (intransitive)
   1. Tomove orroam aroundaimlessly.

      Synonyms:knock around,knock round

      1. (by extension) Tolive anunconventionallife.
   2. To bepresent at orinhabit a certainplace.

      Synonym:hang around

      • 1881, P. Chr. Asbjörnsen [i.e.,Peter Christen Asbjørnsen], “A Day with the Capercailzies”, in H. L. Brækstad, transl.,Round the Yule Log. Norwegian Folk and Fairy Tales, London:Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington,→OCLC,page77:

        He [a hare] used toknock about here in Holleia, and they said he was nearly black. A good many were after him and had a shot at him, but they never had any luck, until this rascally Andreas came here.

      • 1902 January–March, Joseph Conrad, “Typhoon”, in George R. Halkett, editor,The Pall Mall Magazine, volume XXVI, London: Printed by Hazell, Watson & Viney,→OCLC, chapter I,page92, column 2:

        [I]n the chart-room of the steamerNan-Shan, he stood confronted by the fall of a barometer he had no reason to distrust.[…] "That's a fall, and no mistake," he thought. "There must be some uncommonly dirty weatherknocking about."

      1. (by extension) Toengage in arelaxingactivity in a place; tohang around in.

         Synonyms:potter about,potter around

         I like toknock about the garden on Saturdays.

      2. (by extension)Often followed bywith: tospend timecompanionably; to hang around.

         Synonyms:hang,hang about,knock around,knock round

         I used toknock about with John when we were younger.

         John and I used toknock about when we were younger.

      3. (by extension, usually inpresent participial form) To bemislaid in a place.

         Synonyms:knock around,knock round,lie around

         I’ve got some scissorsknocking about in the kitchen.

• “knock about,phrasal v.” under“knock,v.”, inOED Online ⁠, Oxford:Oxford University Press, December 2022.