knock someone off their perch
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
to defeat or humble someone who is arrogant or overly confident
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
đánh bại hoặc làm cho ai đó khiêm tốn quien tự tin quá mức
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: remove someone from a high position
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
The newcomer's innovative ideas knocked the CEO off their perch
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “knock someone off their perch” mean?
to defeat or humble someone who is arrogant or overly confident Literally: remove someone from a high position
Is “knock someone off their perch” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.