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noun

Knockabout n.

(Naut.) A small yacht, generally from fifteen to twenty-five feet in length, having a mainsail and a jib; a sloop with a simplified rig and no bowsprit. All knockabouts have ballast and either a keel or centerboard. The original type was twenty-one feet in length. The next larger type is called a raceabout.

A knockabout performer or performance. (Theat. Slang)

A man hired on a sheep station to do odd jobs. (Colloq., Australia)

adjective

knockabout adj.

Marked by knocking about or roughness.

Of noisy and violent character; marked by farce, pratfalls, and horseplay; as, knockabout comedy. (Theat. Slang)

Synonyms: boisterous, slapstick.

Characterized by, or suitable for, knocking about, or traveling or wandering hither and thither; suitable for use in rough activity; suited for everyday use; used especially of clothing.

Synonyms: casual, everyday.

That does odd jobs; said of a class of hands or laborers on a sheep station. (Collog., Australia)

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Etymology of 'Knockabout'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Knockabout" Quotes from Famous Books

... guess. So she said, "When Mrs. Fulton doesn't draw a line through it." So it seemed that the forty-ninth day of her probation had not been a passage of time. Time had stood still. Why? Well, in the afternoon Mrs. Fulton had gone as crew with a young gentleman who owned a knockabout, and they had got wet to the skin, and had won a leg on some pennant or other after a close, well-sailed race. Mrs. Fulton had come home about dark, drenched, blooming, buoyant, and chattering about the events of the afternoon. She had had her first heart-felt good time of ...

— We Three • Gouverneur Morris

... myself, or my property rather, I put on my knockabout clothes and went out for a walk. Lodgings being fresh in my mind, I began to look them up, bearing in mind the hypothesis that I was a poor young man with a wife ...

— The People of the Abyss • Jack London