English

Alternative forms

• beat the daylights out of, knock the daylights out of

Verb

knock the living daylights out of (someone)

1. (idiomatic) To beat or strike someone.
   • 1939, Ruth McKenney, Industrial Valley, ISBN 0875461832, page 255:

     Boy, the fellows said he just knocked the living daylights out of him, bounced him six feet across the ground.

2. (idiomatic) To thoroughly and decisively defeat someone in a physical fight, especially by knocking out that person.
   • 1954, Denzil Batchelor, Big Fight: The Story of World Championship Boxing, OCLC 7388776, page 65:

     He won the English championship from the six-foot-three-inch, seventeen-stone Sam Hurst, the Staleybridge Infant, knocking the living daylights out of this champion

3. (figuratively) To greatly excel against (someone or something).
   • 1963, “10 second summary”, in Business Management, volume 25, page 38:

     ...where new and better depreciation regulations and a 7% business investment credit knocked the living daylights out of normal and historical accounting procedures...

Synonyms

• put someone's lights out