knockabout

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. adj. Boisterous; rowdy.
2. adj. Appropriate for rough wear or use: a knockabout overcoat.
3. n. A small sloop with a mainsail, jib, and keel but no bowsprit.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. Noting something which knocks (other things) about; rough; buffeting; boisterous: as, a knockabout game of foot-ball.
2. Accustomed to knock about or to be knocked about: as, a knockabout globe-trotter; suitable to be knocked about in: as, a knockabout coat.
3. Noisy; full of horse-play: as, a knockabout entertainment; knockabout business.
4. In Australia, applied to a jack of all trades on a station.
5. n. A traveler; one who has knocked about.
6. n. A performer in a knockabout playorsketch;the sketch itself.
7. n. In Australia, a hand on a station who does a little of everything.
8. n. A small sailing-yacht of light construction and simple sail rig, the latter consisting of a mainsail and a jib bent on a stay that is set up on the stem of the boat. These boats, as a rule, are flat-bottomed, with a fin-keel, and can be handled very quickly, going from one tack to another without apparently losing speed. Some knockabouts are provided with a center-board instead of a fin, for use in shallow waters.
9. n. A small launch.

Wiktionary

1. adj. Boisterous
2. adj. Suitable for rough use.
3. n. sailing A small sailboat lacking a bowsprit, of a type found primarily in the Massachusetts area
4. n. entertainment A slapstick comedy or comedian.
5. n. A tumbler.
6. n. Clothing suitable for rough use.
7. n. Workers habitually engaged in casual employment.
8. n. People living in rough, violent conditions.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Naut.) A small yacht, generally from fifteen to twenty-five feet in length, having a mainsail and a jib; a sloop with a simplified rig and no bowsprit. All knockabouts have ballast and either a keel or centerboard. The original type was twenty-one feet in length. The next larger type is called a raceabout.
2. n. Theat. Slang A knockabout performer or performance.
3. n. Colloq., Australia A man hired on a sheep station to do odd jobs.
4. adj. Marked by knocking about or roughness.
5. adj. Theat. Slang Of noisy and violent character; marked by farce, pratfalls, and horseplay.
6. adj. Characterized by, or suitable for, knocking about, or traveling or wandering hither and thither; suitable for use in rough activity; suited for everyday use; -- used especially of clothing.
7. adj. Collog., Australia That does odd jobs; -- said of a class of hands or laborers on a sheep station.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. be around; be alive or active
2. v. strike against forcefully
3. adj. full of rough and exuberant animal spirits
4. n. a sloop with a simplified rig and no bowsprit
5. adj. suitable for rough use