knock out vs beat up

knock out and beat up both are verbs.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
knock out	No	No	Yes	No
beat up	No	No	Yes	No

As verbs, beat up is a hypernym of knock out; that is, beat up is a word with a broader meaning than knock out:

knock out: knock unconscious or senseless
beat up: give a beating to; subject to a beating, either as a punishment or as an act of aggression

Other hypernyms of knock out include beat, work over.

knock out (verb)	beat up (verb)
destroy or break forcefully	gather
eliminate	give a beating to; subject to a beating, either as a punishment or as an act of aggression
empty (as of tobacco) by knocking out
knock unconscious or senseless
overwhelm with admiration