[-ING1.]
1. The action of the verb KNOCK, q.v.
a. 1340. Hampole, Psalter lxi. 8. In knokynge of brest.
c. 1500. Adam Bel, 226. Who is there nowe, sayde the porter, That maketh all this knocking?
1546. Supplic. Poore Commons (E.E.T.S.), 63. Lightyng of candels to images, knockyng and knelyng to them.
1605. Shaks., Macb., II. ii. 74. Wake Duncan with thy knocking: I would thou could’st.
1662. Stillingfl., Orig. Sacr., III. ii. § 17. There is no such knocking of particles.
1762. Foote, Orator, II. Wks. 1799, I. 210. Certain thumpings, knockings, scratchings.
1845. M. Pattison, Ess. (1889), I. 22. Roused by a loud and continued knocking at the door of the house.
b. With adverbs: see KNOCK v. II. (Also attrib.)
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., VII. v. (MS. Bodl.), lf. 49/2. Grysbating and knokking togedres of teeþ.
1768–74. Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1834), II. 472. It seems the most probable conjecture, that bowing the knee answers to the very vulgar expression of knocking under.
1868. in Hughes, Tom Brown (ed. 6), Pref. The old delusion … that knocking about will turn a timid boy into a bold one.
2. pl. a. (See quot. 1678.) b. Mining. Ore that has been broken with a hammer before being crushed. c. Small pieces broken off from stone by hammering or chiseling.
1678. Phil. Trans., XII. 1063. A third sort of Salt we have which we call Knockings, which doth candy on the Stailes of the Barrow.
1747. Hooson, Miner’s Dict., P ij. To break the Knockings, and crush them to Knockbark, to make the Ore merchantable.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., 1240/1. The sorting of lead ore by the sieve develops three qualities, knockings, riddlings, and fell. The former are large scraps, which are picked out.
3. Comb., as knocking-bucker (see BUCKER2), -mell, -mill, -room, -stone, -trough: see quots.
1686. Plot, Staffordsh., 166. Three sorts, viz. round Ore, small Ore, and Smithum; the two last whereof are first beaten to pieces with an instrument called a *Knocking-bucker.
1847–78. Halliwell, *Knocking-mell, a large wooden hammer used for bruising barley.
1858. N. & Q., 2nd Ser. VI. 8. A strong knockin-mell or wooden pestle.
1727–41. Chambers, Cycl., Stamping-mill, or *knocking-mill, an engine used in the tin-works, to bruise the ore small.
1887. N. D. Davis, Cavaliers & Roundheads in Barbados, 9. The pots were removed to the *Knocking Room. Here they were knocked with force against the ground, causing the sugar to come out in a loaf.
1805. Ramsay, Scot. in 18th C. (1888), II. ii. 70. Its place was supplied by knocked bear. Every family had therefore its *knocking-stone.
1825. Brockett, *Knocking-trough, a conical trough in which the rind is beat off barley with a mallet.
