knock on the head

present singular third person knocks on the head · participle present knocking on the head · participle past knocked on the head · past knocked on the head

1. transitiveTo put an end to; to defeat or frustrate (a scheme or project).

   The urban myth of the sun shining through Box Tunnel on Brunel's birthday may have been knocked on the head, but in its portal facing designs he created structures which have stood the test of time well.

   2020 August 26, Tim Dunn, “Great railway bores of our time!”, in Rail, page 46

   1 more example

   My young brothers and sisters looked very awestruck at this first glimpse of barbaric life, and I fear many of the theories they had formed about going into the wilds alone, and experiencing some Robinson Crusoe-like adventures, were suddenly "knocked on the head," to use a forcible colonial expression, one, however, which rather pointed to their probable fate if they had attempted anything of the kind.

   1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 46