“Knock it out of the park” is a common English phrase that describes when someone does an activity, job, or task extremely well.
You may see multiple versions of this phrase. For instance, many people use the word “hit” substituted for “knock,” and “the ball” substituted for “it.” You may see phrases like “you hit the ball out of the park!” Don’t worry though; with any combination of these words, the phrases all mean the same thing.
How Did “Knock It Out Of The Park” Originate?
As you can probably guess, this phrase most likely came from the popular game baseball. If you don’t know, in the game, the batter is someone who is supposed to hit a ball to get it as far away as possible. The farther the ball gets, the longer it takes the other team to get, which gives the batter more time to run to home base.
If the batter was to hit the ball out of bounds (or out of the park), it would mean they have free time to safely run to home base. This usually ends in a “home run,” where the batter can fully run all bases in one hit.
However, hitting a ball out of the park isn’t easy, and it takes a lot of hard work and precision. This is why the phrase “knock it out of the park” describes when someone does an exceptionally great job.
It is thought that this phrase most likely arose in the late 19th century. It was first used in the context of baseball to congratulate players who performed well. One of the earliest examples comes from 1894, in a newspaper describing a player’s performance!
Examples Of “Knock It Out Of The Park”
Check out these examples that show you the possibilities of using “knock it out of the park” in everyday sentences:
- Derek knocked it out of the park on his last test. Not only did he top his last score, but he also got 100%.
- The boss was nervous about giving his employee too much hard work. At the end of the day, though, his new employee finished everything perfectly! I guess you could say the employee knocked it out of the park.
- No matter what work she was assigned, Sarah could always knock it out of the park!
Related: Check out our “common expressions” section for more articles like this one!
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