a. and sb. colloq.
A. adj. Such as to knock one down (lit. or fig.); violent, riotous; overbearing, defiant; prostrating, overpowering.
1760. Foote, Minor, I. Wks. 1830, I. 35. No knock-me-down doings in my house.
1848. J. H. Newman, Loss & Gain, II. xviii. (1858), 250. He’s so positive, so knock-me-down.
1863. ‘Ouida,’ Held in Bondage (1870), 104. The overbearing, knock-me-down Marchioness … who gave the law to everybody.
1896. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., I. 691. The term ‘knock-me-down fever’ (applied sometimes to dengue).
B. sb. = KNOCK-DOWN B. 1.
1756. W. Toldervy, Hist. Two Orphans, II. 112.
1828. Craven Dial., Knock-me-down, strong ale.
1892. Daily News, 3 Aug., 6/1. A savant who muddled my poor brains with geological knock-me-downs which he declares will be heard in Section C.
