knock the stuffing out of
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
to completely defeat or destroy someone's confidence or energy
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
làm cho ai đó mất hoàn toàn niềm tin hoặc năng lượng
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: to remove the filling from something
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
The criticism knocked the stuffing out of her, and she didn't speak up again.
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 the stuffing out of” mean?
to completely defeat or destroy someone's confidence or energy Literally: to remove the filling from something
Is “knock the stuffing out of” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.