Knock

Knock - (Easton's Bible Dictionary)

"Though Orientals are very jealous of their privacy, they never knock when about to enter your room, but walk in without warning or ceremony. It is nearly impossible to teach an Arab servant to knock at your door. They give warning at the outer gate either by calling or knocking. To stand and call is a very common and respectful mode. Thus Moses commanded the holder of a pledge to stand without and call to the owner to come forth (Deut. 24:10). This was to avoid the violent intrusion of cruel creditors. Peter stood knocking at the outer door (Acts 12:13, 16), and the three men sent to Joppa by Cornelius made inquiry and stood before the gate' (10:17, 18). The idea is that the guard over your privacy is to be placed at the entrance."

Knocking is used as a sign of importunity (Matt. 7:7, 8; Luke 13:25), and of the coming of Christ (Luke 12:36; Rev. 3:20).

Knock - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

KNOCK, v.i. nok.

1. To strike or beat with something thick or heavy; as, to knock with a club or with the fist; to knock at the door. We never use this word to express beating with a small stick or whip.

2. To drive or be driven against; to strike against; to clash; as when one heavy body knocks against another.

To knock under, to yield; to submit; to acknowledge to be conquered; an expression borrowed from the practice of knocking under the table, when conquered.

KNOCK, v.t. nok. To strike; to drive against; as, to knock the head against a post.

1. To strike a door for admittance; to rap.

To knock down, to strike down; to fell; to prostrate by a blow or by blows; as, to knock down an ox.

To knock out, to force out by a blow or by blows; as, to knock out the brains.

To knock up, to arouse by knocking. In popular use, to beat out; to fatigue till unable to do more.

To knock off, to force off by beating. At auctions, to assign to a bidder by a blow on the counter.

To knock on the head, to kill by a blow or by blows.

KNOCK, n. nok. A blow; a stroke with something thick or heavy.

1. A stroke on a door, intended as a request for admittance; a rap.

nok (krouo): The oriental house was fitted with heavy doors which were bolted and locked with wooden keys too large to be carried about, so that even a member of the household could not secure entrance until in response to his knock or call the door should be opened by someone within. At night the delay would be increased by the difficulty of arousing the inmates sleeping within the inner chambers. To persons familiar with such experiences, the words of Jesus concerning a higher entrance, "Knock, and it shall be opened unto you" (Mt 7:7; Lu 12:36), would have a unique force not easy for us to appreciate.

Russell Benjamin Miller