figuratively, to
knock out of shape, to
change beyond
recognition; to
render useless; to defeat completely. This can also be used to mean to be of much higher
quality or
value than. A cocked
hat was a
hat worn especially in the eighteenth century,
having a
stiff, wide brim turned up on two or three sides giving a three-cornered appearance. The
phrase knock into a cocked
hat is
thought to have come from a bowling
game where three out of the nine
pins (to be knocked down by the bowler) were
set up in a triangular arrangement and when all the
pins except these were knocked down, the
set was said to be "knocked into a cocked
hat."