Knock-out

subs. (common).—1.  A man frequenting auction rooms and joining with others to buy at a nominal price. One of the gang is told off to buy for the rest, and after a few small bids as blinds, the lot is knocked down to the KNOCK-OUT bidders, so that competition is made impossible. At the end of the sale the goods are taken to a near hand public-house, where they are re-sold or KNOCKED-OUT among the confederates, the difference between the first purchase and the second—or tap-room KNOCK-OUT—being divided. The lowest sort of KNOCK-OUTS, with more tongue than capital, are called BABES. Hence (2) an auction at which KNOCKING-OUT is practised. Also verbally, as an adj., and in combination.

  1823.  BADCOCK (‘Jon Bee’), Dictionary of the Turf, etc., s.v. KNOCK OUT, an illegal auction.

  1856.  C. READE, It Is Never Too Late to Mend, xlii. This was a KNOCK-OUT transaction; twelve buyers had agreed not to bid against one another in the auction room, a conspiracy illegal but customary.

  1872.  Athenæum, 4 May. Book KNOCK-OUT … buying a rare Shakespeare for £20, and afterwards selling it at a KNOCK-OUT for £525.

  1876.  C. HINDLEY, ed. The Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 203. The concern would either remain for a time in shares or would be ‘KNOCKED OUT’ at once, that is, resold by auction among themselves and the profit divided.

  1883.  A. LANG, A Bookman’s Purgatory, in Longman’s Magazine, Sept., p. 522. The auctioneer put up lot after lot, and Blinton plainly saw that the whole affair was a KNOCK-OUT. His most treasured spoils were parted with at the price of waste paper.

  1891.  Pall Mall Gazette, 29 Nov., p. 4, c. 3. He condemned the market ‘rings,’ and maintained that by the process of KNOCKING OUT the price of food was kept up.

  2.  In pl. (gaming).—Dice: when in the box = BABES IN THE WOOD or ROGUES IN THE STOCKS. See FULHAMS.

  3.  (common).—A man or woman: used either in eulogy or in outraged propriety: also a WARM MEMBER (q.v.); one who does outrageous things.

  4.  (pugilistic).—1.  A hit out of the guard on the point of the chin, which puts the recipient to sleep, and so ends the fight. Hence, 2 (common), a champion of any sort and in any walk of life. KNOCKER-OUT = a pugilist who is an adept at PUTTING TO SLEEP (q.v.).

  1891.  Sporting Life, 25 March. The Barrier man was nearly helpless, and Choynski tried frantically to pull himself together for one good KNOCK-OUT.

  1892.  CHEVALIER, Idler, June, p. 549, ‘A Coster Song.’

  1894.  Illustrated Bits, 7 April, 4, 2. They all called her Miss Tricky, except some of the lads who preferred to describe her with fervour as ‘A fair KNOCK-OUT.’

  1894.  ARTHUR MORRISON, Tales of Mean Streets, 134. It was a hard fight, and both the lads were swinging the right again and again for a KNOCK-OUT.

  1895.  E. B. OSBORN, A Gallery of Athletes, in The New Review, April, 450. The hit out of the guard to the point of the chin, which is the prettiest application of the theory of the lever—is equally dangerous when it comes from a gloved hand. Accordingly, modern boxers (so-called) will give up everything for an opportunity of striking this particular blow; and a contest with or without the gloves degenerates into a struggle of waving hands and woven paces for the one position in which ’tis possible to deliver it with a fair chance of ‘KNOCKING-OUT.’