Meaning trap
knock out
impress greatly
To amaze or impress someone very much, often by being unexpectedly good, beautiful, or effective.
Don't mix these meanings
Same phrase, different job.
To amaze or impress someone very much, often by being unexpectedly good, beautiful, or effective.
'knock out' also has the more basic meaning 'make someone unconscious'; this is the advanced sense.
Hear it in context
Notice where the phrase sounds natural.
- The performance absolutely knocked me out—it was breathtaking from start to finish.emotion
- While many films are enjoyable, only a few truly knock audiences out with their originality and emotional impact.IELTS speaking
Fix the pattern
Pattern: knock someone out
WrongThe view knocked out me.
RightThe view knocked me out.
With a pronoun, the object goes in the middle — 'knocked me out'.
Patternknock someone out
Use it right
Choose the version that sounds natural in speech.
'Knock out' (informal) vividly means blow you away. 'Impressed enormously' is flat.
Build natural chunks
Words that usually travel with it.
knock + outknocked me outthe foodthat viewabsolutely
Don't confuse it
Unlike the B1 sense ('make someone unconscious'), this sense is figurative and means to impress or amaze someone. It does not involve physical action or competition, as in the B2 sense.
Related
- knock out (make someone unconscious) — 'knock out' also has the more basic meaning 'make someone unconscious'; this is the advanced sense.