know someone from Adam

• know someone from Adam's off ox

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

know someone from Adam (third-person singular simple present knows someone from Adam, present participle knowing someone from Adam, simple past knew someone from Adam, past participle known someone from Adam)

1. (idiomatic) To know or recognise someone at all.
   • 1938, Graham Greene, Brighton Rock

     'Who is she, anyway? Interfering . . . pestering . . . you must know.' 'I don't know her from Adam,' the Boy said.

   • 1963, Audrey Lillian Barker, The joy-ride and after:

     "Well," he said, "do you know me from Adam?"

Almost always used in the negative.

• know from a bar of soap
• know someone from a can of paint
• know someone from a hole in the ground
• know someone from a hole in the wall
• know someone from the man in the moon