knocking shop
noun1
Australia, New Zealand, UK, Slang A brothel.
- [A]lways reminds me of one of the costlier knocking-shops, you know—'Maison Japonaise' …1945, Evelyn Waugh, “Epilogue”, in Brideshead Revisited […], London: Chapman & Hall, published 1952, →OCLC, page 300:
- Bloody nonsense, "All come together"... Sounds like the motto of a knocking shop in Marrakesh.1990, House of Cards, season 1, episode 1:
2 more examples
- Mr Clark, an unrepentant philanderer now gone to the knocking shop in the sky, recorded for posterity his liaisons with Valerie, Josephine and Alison Harkess.2004 June 12, Vikram Dodd, “Coven's footnote to Clark diaries”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
- [It] had made Mick's heart soar, if only briefly, at the thought that he and Alma might outlive the monster breeze blocks that were used to smash their home ground into crack dens, knocking shops and a despairing dust that settled everywhere on people's heartstrings.2016, Alan Moore, Jerusalem, Liveright, page 30: