knocker-up

See also: knocker up

English

Alternative forms

• knocker-upper
• knocker up

Noun

knocker-up (plural knocker-ups)

1. (British, historical) A person whose job was to go from house to house in the early morning and wake up workers by tapping on the bedroom window with a long pole or similarly convenient implement.
   • 1942, Eric Knight, The Flying Yorkshireman, Benediction Classics, →ISBN:

     ... And Capper was a very important man. He was the knocker-up in the village of Polkingthorpe Brig — that is to say, he got up early every morning and went round with his pole, tapping on the bedroom windows and waking up the people in time for them to get to work... Old Capper got his long pole with the trident of wire at the end and lifting it so that the wire rested against the upstairs window pane, began twirling and twisting the pole in the palms of his hands so that the wire clacked and clattered fit to wake the soundest sleeper... So they stood round old Capper, who had one of the few watches in the village...

   • 1945 May and June, “Top Link Drivers”, in Railway Magazine, page 159:

     He [Driver Carruthers] started on the L.N.W.R. in 1907 as a knocker-up for four years, then became a cleaner, fireman, and finally a driver.

   • 2019, Paula Mejia, Remembering the "Knocker-Ups" Hired to Wake Workers With Pea Shooters. Rise and shine! [1]:

     One of these characters, Mary Anne Smith, became a beloved presence — along with her trusty pea shooter — around London’s East End in the 1930s. John Topham, who snapped photos of Smith in action, remembers “every morning but Sunday she would rise at three to ‘knock up’ local workers—using a pea shooter. She charged sixpence a week and her nearest competition was an old man three miles away who did the same job using a fishing rod to tap on upstairs windows.” Smith was known for the rapping, clacking sound of her peas against windows and doors. In the children’s book Mary Smith, she’s depicted as waking up everyone from fishmongers to the mayor.