knockabout: Meaning and Definition of

knock•a•bout

Pronunciation: (nok'u-bout"), [key]
— n.
  1. any of various fore-and-aft-rigged sailing vessels having a single jib bent to a stay from the stemhead, no bowsprit being used: usually rigged as a sloop.
  2. something designed or suitable for rough or casual use, as a sturdy jacket, a secondhand car, etc.
  3. a slapstick comedian or comedy.
  4. an itinerant farm hand or ranch hand; an itinerant handyman.
  5. wanderer.
—adj.
  1. suitable for rough use, as a garment: a knockabout jacket and jeans.
  2. characterized by knocking about; rough; boisterous.
  3. slapstick: knockabout comedy.
  4. shiftless; aimless: a knockabout kind of person.
Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.
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