a. (sb.) [The phrase knock about (see KNOCK v. 7), used attrib., and hence by ellipsis as sb.]
A. adj. 1. Characterized by knocking about, or dealing blows; rough, violent, boisterous.
1885. Pall Mall Gaz., 4 April, 4/1. The rage for this knockabout sport [football]. R. H. Sherard, in Ibid. (1891), 4 Aug., 7/1. Prize fights, and street-fights, and knockabout performances which so delight you seem to Parisians brutal.
b. Theatr. slang. Of noisy and violent character.
1892. Daily News, 10 May, 3/4. The ‘knockabout’ character of sketches.
1893. Times, 25 Dec., 6/2. Two very droll and daring knock-about comedians.
1897. G. Floyd, in Compl. Cyclist, vi. 156. The intelligent foreigner … imagines that the type of English humour is a knockabout entertainment.
2. Characterized by being driven to and fro, or wandering irregularly about.
1886. Morris, in Mackail, Life (1899), II. 158. Such a knockabout day as I had on Monday!
1890. Blackmore, Kit & Kitty, III. xvi. A knockabout fellow swore to find out all about you.
b. Of a garment, etc.: Suitable for travelling or ‘knocking about.’
1880. Echo, 23 Nov., 4/4. Knockabout Corduroy Cloth.
1895. ‘M. E. Francis,’ Daughter of Soil, 101. Any make, newest style, best cut—every thing, sir, from knock-about suits to dress-clothes.
1900. Daily Tel., 25 Aug., 3/2. Concocting with their own nimble fingers tasteful blouses, useful knockabout skirts, and dainty trifles of lace and muslin.
c. Australia. Applied to a laborer on a station who is ready to turn his hand to any kind of work. Cf. ROUSEABOUT.
1876. W. Harcus, S. Australia, 275 (Morris). Knockabout hands, 17s. to 20s. per week.
1890. ‘R. Boldrewood,’ Col. Reformer, xix. We’re getting rather too many knockabout men for a small station like this.
B. sb. 1. Theatr. slang. A ‘knockabout’ performer or performance: see A. 1 b.
1887. Pall Mall Gaz., 17 Sept., 3/2. Bounding brothers, knockabouts, step-dancers.
1892. Daily News, 7 June, 6/3. Singers, dancers, knockabouts, and quick-change artistes.
2. Australia. A ‘knock-about’ man: see A. 2 c.
1889. ‘R. Boldrewood,’ Robbery under Arms (1890), xvi. 109. The knockabouts and those other three chaps won’t come it on us.
