knock someone off their perch
English
Pronunciation
Audio (AU) (file)
Verb
knock someone off their perch (third-person singular simple present knocks someone off their perch, present participle knocking someone off their perch, simple past and past participle knocked someone off their perch)
- (idiomatic) To defeat or overcome someone who was in a dominant position.
- 2004 September 7, “Singh on top of the world”, in The Guardian:
- Tiger Woods has been knocked off his perch as the No1 player in the world after Vijay Singh beat him in the Deutsche Bank Open last night.
- 2005 May 16, The Associated Press, “Kanaan Wins Indy Pole; Patrick Settles for Fourth”, in New York Times:
- He was the third qualifier of the day and posted a 4-lap, 10-mile qualifying average of 227.566 miles an hour on the two-and-a-half-mile oval, then had to wait through nearly six hours while other drivers tried to knock him off his perch.
- 2011 July 4, Alistair Magowan quoting Kelly Smith, “Women's World Cup: England out to dethrone Germany”, in BBC Sport:
- "It would be nice to knock the Germans off their perch, with them winning the last European Championship and the World Cup."
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See also
- knock someone's block off
- knock someone's socks off