knock the stuffing out of
English
editVerb
editknock the stuffing out of (third-person singular simple present knocks the stuffing out of, present participle knocking the stuffing out of, simple past and past participle knocked the stuffing out of)
- (informal, idiomatic) To cause (someone, a team) to lose energy and confidence.
- Chelsea knocked the stuffing out of Brighton well before the final whistle when they beat them 1-3 at Brighton.
- 2022 January 12, Nigel Harris, “Comment: Unhappy start to 2022”, in RAIL, number 948, page 3:
- Added to these woes was the Treasury's demands for across-the-board train operator cost-cutting of broadly 10%. Passenger rail's slow, patchy and fragile recovery had the stuffing knocked out of it once more.
References
edit- “knock the stuffing out of”, in Collins English Dictionary.
- “knock the stuffing out of”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
- “knock the stuffing out of”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.