knock off vs cease

knock off is not a noun while cease is a noun.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
knock off	No	No	Yes	No
cease	Yes	No	Yes	No

As verbs, cease is a hypernym of knock off; that is, cease is a word with a broader meaning than knock off:

Other hypernyms of knock off include discontinue, give up, lay off, quit, stop.

knock off (noun)	cease (noun)
	(`cease' is a noun only in the phrase `without cease') end

knock off (verb)	cease (verb)
stop pursuing or acting	put an end to a state or an activity
get rid of (someone who may be a threat) by killing	have an end, in a temporal, spatial, or quantitative sense; either spatial or metaphorical
write quickly
take by theft
cut the price of