Phrasal Verb Fun

knock about
Old Tony knows everything you need to know about this country. He's
been knocking about here for forty years.
The idea here is that Old Tony has had many experiences here, not all of
them soft. In fact, one of our expressions for experience is the school of

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hard knocks.
About
here means here, there and everywhere.
Knock
around
means exactly the same.
Inseparable two-word verb
No problem.
knock off
When you knock something
off
the shelf, the idea is to take it. Quickly. So
knocking something off is to steal it.
'Where are my carpets?'
'They've been knocked of.'.
By extension, a knock-off is an illegal copy, like the counterfeit brand-
name clothes to pirated films you can buy in the pub. Sometimes it can be
an insult for a film that you think copies too exactly the main idea from
someone else. Is Apocalyse Now a knock-off of Conrad's Heart of
Darkness? I will let you decide.
Separable two-word verb
Be careful.
knock out
Out
can often be the conclusion, the end, so that's the end of the boxing
match. When someone is knocked out it is similar but rather more violent
than when someone
passes out
Separable two-word verb
Be careful.
know
(know, knew, known)
Know is a fantastically difficult philosophical word to define well. But for
today let us just say that to know something is to be informed of it. And
to know someone means that you have met them before and you
remember them.
know about
I know something about quantum mechanics because I studied it for ten
years.
Inseparable two-word verb
No problem.
know of

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I know of quantum mechanics. Someone told me in the pub.
Inseparable two-word verb
No problem.
lay
(lay, laid, laid)
The basic meaning of this word is to 'put something flat on a horizontal
surface'. You can lay a book on the table but you
put
a cup or a pen on it.
Notice that this verb always has an object. You always lay something. Do
not confuse it with
lie
(lie, lay, lain/laid), which never does. Sometimes
less-educated natives make this mistake as well.
Happy Harry laid his maps on the table for the geography class.
But
Lazy Lucinda is always lying on the sofa.
lay off
Sometimes
off
just means away from here. When you lay something off,
you lay it to one side. You stop using it.
By extension, when you lay people off, you stop employing them. You do
not need them any more. Usually, nowadays, it is not personal. That is to
say, people are normally laid off because the business is failing, or the
management has decided to close a factory or an office.
The people are laid off and the owners
sell off
the equipment, the capital.
Separable two-word verb
Be careful.
lay out
You can lay out your plans - literally or not - on the table. An architect's
plans are often called a lay-out.
If you sell fruit, at the beginning of the day you lay your fruit
out
on the
counter, at the bar.
Set out
can have the same meaning.
Separable two-word verb
Be careful.
leave
(leave, left, left)
To go away or to abandon. I left Rome last night, but I hope to
go back

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soon. However, I left my phone in the hotel room. Goodbye, phone!
leave out
This is a book for the whole family, so I had to leave out a few verbs that
are most definitely phrasal. I had to leave them
out
of the book. You won't
see them here.
Separable two-word verb
Be careful.