knockback

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   A blow that causes the recipient to fall or move backwards, a knock back

   A blow that causes the recipient to fall or move backwards, a knock back; a recoil.

   • He lifted his hand in a knockback spell, which would send me sailing right into the zombie.
2. 2

   Something that impedes or reverses progress

   Something that impedes or reverses progress; a setback.

   • […]the chemo had not worked and had gone back into his brain.[…]He had knockback after knockback. It would have taken its toll on anyone.
   • Despite all the knockbacks from COVID, as an industry we are ready for the turnaround and more than ready to welcome back passengers returning from lockdown.
3. 3

   A rejection

   A rejection; a refusal.

   • He got a few knockbacks today when he tried to give his resume out at the local shops.
   • The only other knockback in the Port Kembla-Wollongong district was from Benny Westwood of the Advance Tyre Service. He, too, ordered us off the premises.
   • 1995, Heather Hogarth, Your First Job: Getting It, Keeping It, and Going Further, MacMillan Education Australia, page 82, So you′ve had a knockback. All right, we don′t all get the first job we apply for.

The neighborhood