knock the living daylights out of

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

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knock the living daylights out of (third-person singular simple present knocks the living daylights out of, present participle knocking the living daylights out of, simple past and past participle knocked the living daylights out of)

1. (idiomatic) To beat or strike someone.
   • 1939, Ruth McKenney, Industrial Valley, →ISBN, 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, 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. (figurative) 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...

• See Thesaurus:clobber