Know all the answers
verb phrase
Also,
know a thing or two
;
know it all
;
know one’s way around
. Be extremely knowledgeable or experienced. These idioms may be used somewhat differently, expressing overconfidence, as in
Helen always knew all the answers, or thought she did
, or competence, as in
Bob knows a thing or two about battery technology
, or ruefulness, as in
I thought I knew it all about plants and then I got poison ivy
, or genuine expertise, as in
John knows his way around tax forms
. The first term dates from the early 1900s, the second from the later 1700s, the third from the later 1800s, and the fourth, also put as
know one’s way about
, dates from the 1500s. Also see
; under
tricks of the trade
Read Also:
- Know a thing or two
verb phrase To have practical sagacity; be worldly-wise; know what’s what (1792+) see: know all the answers
- Know beans
see: not know beans
- Know better
Be able to recognize something as wrong or not possible, as in Mary should know better than to leave her child alone in the house, or Try to get in without a ticket? You know better than that. [ c. 1700 ]
- Knowbot
World-Wide Web A kind of bot that collects information by automatically gathering certain specified information from websites. (1999-06-19) knowledge robot
- Knowbot information service
networking, information science (KIS) Also known as netaddress. The Knowbot Information Service (KIS) provides a uniform user interface to a variety of remote directory services such as whois, finger, X.500, MCIMail. By submitting a single query to KIS, a user can search a set of remote white pages services and see the results of the […]