student asking question

What's "knock [something] off" mean?

teacher

Native speaker’s answer

Rebecca

"It" here stands for "wood chip," so you can understand "knock it off" as "knock the chip off." To "knock something off" means to remove something by pushing, hitting, or other forceful action. In this case, it means to use force to remove the wood chip off someone's shoulder. Ex: My cat knocked a vase off the table. Ex: I knocked a book off the table.

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