knockback

See also: knock back

English

Etymology

knock + back

Noun

knockback (plural knockbacks)

  1. A blow that causes the recipient to fall or move backwards, a knock back; a recoil.
  2. Something that impedes or reverses progress; a setback.
    • 2011, Lee Hobin, God, Why Are You Being So Cruel?, page 188,
      [] 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.
  3. (Britain, Australia, informal) A rejection; a refusal.
    He got a few knockbacks today when he tried to give his resume out at the local shops.
    • 1987, Rupert Lockwood, War on the Waterfront: Menzies, Japan, and the Pig-Iron Dispute, page 199,
      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.
    • 2010, Chris Rau, Dealing With the Media: A Handbook for Students, Activists, Community Groups and Anyone Who Can′t Afford a Spin Doctor, page 3,
      They asked matter-of-fact questions about harrowing tales that the victims had been trying to tell other media outlets, only to receive knockback after knockback for more than a year.
    • 2010, Tony Parsons, Tony Parsons on Life, Death and Breakfast, unnumbered page,
      Nicole Kidman got a knockback because Su-Man was too busy whipping a certain Oscar-winning French actress into shape.
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