See also: knockup and knock-up

English

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Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /nɒk ʌp/
  • Audio (US):(file)

Verb

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knock up (third-person singular simple present knocks up, present participle knocking up, simple past and past participle knocked up)

  1. (colloquial) To put together, fabricate, or assemble, particularly if done hastily or temporarily. [from 16th c.]
    Synonyms: knock together, run up
    I'll just knock up a quick demo for the sales presentation.
  2. (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. [from 17th c.]
  3. (dated) To exhaust; wear out; tire out; to fatigue until unable to do more. [from 18th c.]
    • 1835, Charlotte Brontë, chapter XVII, in Villette[1]:
      ‘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 []
  4. (dated, intransitive) To become exhausted or worn out; to fail of strength; to become wearied, as with labor; to give out. [from 18th c.]
    • 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 [Uniform ed., p. 87]:
      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.
  5. (slang, chiefly US) To impregnate, especially out of wedlock. See knocked up. [from 19th c.]
    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.”
  6. (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. [from 19th c.]
  7. (bookbinding) To make even at the edges, or to shape into book form.
    to knock up printed sheets
  8. (obsolete, printing) To straighten up a stack of paper.

Synonyms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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