knocking

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈnɑkɪŋ/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈnɒkɪŋ/

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -ɒkɪŋ
• Hyphenation: knock‧ing

knocking

1. present participle and gerund of knock

knocking (plural knockings)

1. An act in which something is knocked on, or the sound thus produced
   • 1893, W. B. Yeats, The Celtic Twilight‎:

     These strange openings and closings and knockings were warnings and reminders from the spirits who attend the dying.

   • 1901, Carson Jay Lee, Oswald Langdon‎:

     There was no response to continued knockings.

   • 2006 July 21, Keith Harris, Monica Kendrick, Peter Margasak, Bob Mehr, Miles Raymer, Neil Tesser, “The Treatment”, in Chicago Reader‎:

     Recorded live to CD with new instrumentation--artillery shells, tuned suspension cables, boxes filled with springs--and deemphasized guitar parts, it's a beautiful collection of echoes and whispers, drones and knockings, with a gently swelling sense of the sinister.

2. (automotive) A repetitive ping, knock, or similar sound coming from an engine in which there are repeated uncontrolled explosions in the combustion chamber.
   • 1914 November 14, The Motor Cycle, London, page 528, column 1:

     Sir―I was greatly interested in a short article in The Motor Cycle on the subject of engine knocking.

   • 2021 December, The Road Ahead, Brisbane, page 56, column 1:

     Knocking can also occur at high speed, but that may go undetected by the driver.