knocking
English
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈnɑkɪŋ/
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈnɒkɪŋ/
Audio (US): (file) - Rhymes: -ɒkɪŋ
- Hyphenation: knock‧ing
Verb
[edit]knocking
- present participle and gerund of knock
Noun
[edit]knocking (plural knockings)
- An act in which something is knocked on, or the sound thus produced
- 1893, W. B. Yeats, The Celtic Twilight[1]:
- These strange openings and closings and knockings were warnings and reminders from the spirits who attend the dying.
- 1901, Carson Jay Lee, Oswald Langdon[2]:
- There was no response to continued knockings.
- 2006 July 21, Keith Harris, Monica Kendrick, Peter Margasak, Bob Mehr, Miles Raymer, Neil Tesser, “The Treatment”, in Chicago Reader[3]:
- Recorded live to CD with new instrumentation--artillery shells, tuned suspension cables, boxes filled with springs--and deemphasized guitar parts, it's a beautiful collection of echoes and whispers, drones and knockings, with a gently swelling sense of the sinister.
- (automotive) A repetitive ping, knock, or similar sound coming from an engine in which there are repeated uncontrolled explosions in the combustion chamber.
- 1914 November 14, The Motor Cycle, London, page 528, column 1:
- Sir―I was greatly interested in a short article in The Motor Cycle on the subject of engine knocking.
- 2021 December, The Road Ahead, Brisbane, page 56, column 1:
- Knocking can also occur at high speed, but that may go undetected by the driver.