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knock up. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
knock up, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
knock up in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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English
Pronunciation
Verb
knock up (third-person singular simple present knocks up, present participle knocking up, simple past and past participle knocked up)
- (colloquial) To put together, fabricate, or assemble, particularly if done hastily or temporarily. See also knock together.
I'll just knock up a quick demo for the sales presentation.
- (British) To awaken (someone) as by knocking at the door; rouse; call; summon; also, to go door-to-door on election day to persuade a candidate's supporters to go to the polling station and vote. See also knocker up.
1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “chapter 15”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:However, by dint of beating about a little in the dark, and now and then knocking up a peaceable inhabitant to inquire the way, we at last came to something which there was no mistaking.
1966, Ngaio Marsh, Death at the Dolphin, page 160:‘I didn't knock you up when I came in,’ Peregrine said. ‘There seemed no point. It was getting light. I just thought I’d leave the note to wake me at seven. And oddly enough I did sleep. Heavily.’
- (dated) To exhaust; wear out; tire out; to fatigue until unable to do more.
1835, Charlotte Brontë, chapter XVII, in Villette:‘Now, mamma,’ he said, when he went out, ‘take notice, you are not to knock up your god-daughter with gossip,’ [...]
1861, John Petherick, Egypt, the Soudan and Central Africa, page 389:The day being exceedingly hot, the want of food had knocked up my followers […]
- (dated, intransitive) To become exhausted or worn out; to fail of strength; to become wearied, as with labor; to give out.
1856, Thomas de Quincey, Memorials, page 81:[…] the horses were beginning to knock up under the fatigue of such severe service […]
- 1907, E.M. Forster, The Longest Journey, Part I, VII :
- I met one of your dons at tea, and he said that your degree was not in the least a proof of your abilities: he said that you knocked up and got flurried in examinations.
- (slang, principally American) To impregnate, especially out of wedlock. See knocked up.
I guess his summer plans are shot now that he knocked his girlfriend up.
2015, Jaime Loren, Waiting for April, Pan, →ISBN:“And how many other girls has he knocked up?” “Would you keep your voice down? Mom's home.” She pressed her hands to her head. “I just don't understand how you could ditch Rowan and get knocked up by Scott, like, right away.”
- (racket sports, intransitive) To gently hit the ball back and forth before a tennis match, as practice or warm-up, and to gauge the state of the playing surface, lighting, etc. See knock-up.
- (bookbinding) To make even at the edges, or to shape into book form.
to knock up printed sheets
- (obsolete, printing) To straighten up a stack of paper.
Synonyms
Translations
To impregnate, especially out of wedlock
practice or warm up before a tennis match
See also