know someone from Adam

• know someone from Adam's off ox

know someone from Adam

1. (idiomatic) To know or recognise someone at all.
   • 1938, Graham Greene, Brighton Rock

     'Who is she, anyway? Interfering . . . pestering . . . you must know.' 'I don't know her from Adam,' the Boy said.

   • 1963, Audrey Lillian Barker, The joy-ride and after

     "Well," he said, "do you know me from Adam?"

Almost always used in the negative.

• know from a bar of soap
• know someone from a can of paint
• know someone from a hole in the ground
• know someone from a hole in the wall