Green’s Dictionary of Slang

see ankle-biter under ankle n.

(Scot.) a voyeur who taunts amorous couples in the outdoors.

1962

B. McGhee Cut and Run (1963) 94: Each time we found a likely place to kiss and cuddle, you could bet your life for some of the ‘knee-creepers’ to appear on the scene.

insincere praying, presumably on one’s knees.

1901		Bulletin (Sydney) 7 Dec. 34/3: That night Ben came home radiant, the ground springing to his feet. The Captain had been ‘great’ that evening; ‘What volleys had been fired! What knee-drill! The Devil worsted as never before.’.
1909		J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era.
1921		N&Q 12 Ser. IX 425: Knee Drill. Church parade.

(US) knickerbockers or men’s knee-length shorts.

1968		G. Cuomo Among Thieves 383: Those co-eds were rather cute in their knee-knocker outfits.
a.1982		Story et al. Dict. Newf. Eng. 287: Knee knockers: men’s trousers gathered in at the knees; knickerbockers [HDAS].
1992		D. Burke Street Talk 2 69: Cool kneebangers, brah!

(US black) to beg.

1953

L. Durst Jives of Dr. Hepcat (1989) 6: Understand, I don’t want to knee pad but the score is piling up and its relief I crave.

(US) an uproarious joke, often used ironically.

1966		New Yorker 5 Nov. 128: ‘How’s the World Treating You’, an English comedy at the Music Box, is full of knee-slappers like that one .
1970		W. Burroughs Jr Speed 84: I needed a phone book which the guard thought a real knee slapper.
1989		(con. 1969) W.E. Merritt Where the Rivers Ran Backward 264: When I was a kid, the funniest stories I ever heard were told by survivors of a Stalag. Real knee slappers.
1993		S. King Dolores Claiborne 188: Laughin and shakin his head the way you do when someone tells a real knee-slapper.
2000		F. Kellerman Stalker (2001) 361: ‘That’s a real knee-slapper, Lopez,’ Hayley commented dryly.

sexual intercourse when both partners are standing up, popular with cheap prostitutes or with couples who have nowhere to lie down; thus knee-tremble, do a knee-trembler, to have intercourse standing up; trembler trade, open air prostitution, with girl and client both standing; also in fig. use.

1965		G. Melly Owning Up (1974) 31: The canal tow-path and the surrounding fields were suitable for knee-trembles and yet you could still hear the band.
1965		W. Dick Bunch of Ratbags 198: I asked her to let me give her a knee-trembler, but she refused.
1971		(con. WWII) B. Aldiss Soldier Erect 45: Shafting the girl up against the whitewashed wall [...] a knee-trembler in the sunset!
1977		(ref. to 1950s) Rustler Feb. 28: trembler trade n. prostitution practised in the open air, standing up; men who copulate with women while standing in the open air 1950s.
1981		(con. c.1900) A. Harding in Samuel East End Und. 110: That was what you called a ‘fourpenny touch’ or a ‘knee trembler’ – they wouldn’t stay with you all night.
1984		P. Barker Blow Your House Down 43: It’d have to be a knee-wobbler: she was damned if she was gunna lie down in all that muck.
1985		B. Humphries Traveller’s Tool 8: Some of the best knee-tremblers and one-night stands I’ve ever enjoyed.
1987		(con. 1930s) L. Redmond Emerald Square 217: I could have told her in detail how the sexual act was performed, either lying down or standing up against the brewery walls, a ‘knee trembler’ we called that.
1999		J. Cameron Brown Bread in Wengen [ebook] [T]he little Asian bird on the till was a touch of a knee trembler.
2001		N. Griffiths Sheepshagger 7: Ianto’s mam probably met him in the fields [...] or something, had a knee-trembler in an outhouse or up against a tractor, something like that.
2002		J. Cameron Hell on Hoe Street 25: Her smile gave me a knee trembler.
2012		(con. 1980s) I. Welsh Skagboys 131: Chip Sandra goat her name cause she was eatin chips while gittin rode by Matty in a knee-trembler up the Goods Yard.
2012		(con. 1980s) I. Welsh Skagboys 269: The manky fucker’s gaunny knee-tremble her oan the spot.
2012		(con. 1943) G.S. Manson Coorparoo Blues [ebook] The odd doorway held a couple going a kneetrembler.
2015		I. Welsh Decent Ride 412: Ah think ay the generations ay knee-tremblers that must have took place in this labyrinth.
2021		P Howard Braywatch 216: ‘It was a quick knee trembler up against the gable wall’.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 158: Vanier [...] was watching this ne plus ultra of a knee-trembler.

(US) very drunk, often preceded by falling-down; also of drugs.

1967		E. Shepard Doom Pussy 50: Many of those present proceed to get dead, falling-down, knee-walking drunk.
1979		Eble Campus Sl. Mar. 5: knee-walking – drunk.
1989		Hackworth & Sherman About Face (1991) 139: We ate steaks, sang around a big bonfire, and got knee-knocking drunk.
1995		Cornier et al. Wildcats 198: Some sailors can get knee-walking drunk on two cans [HDAS].
2005		J. Stahl I, Fatty 46: Jack London came in knee-walking drunk.

(US) fellatio.

2005

R. Cea No Lights, No Sirens 157: ‘You’s a cunt, punk-ass nigga. [...] Put you in a ma’fuckin’ pair of panties and lipstick, do some knee work’.

(US) to pause, slow down.

2020

Woods & Soderburg I Got a Monster 1: [Afte the death of Freddie Gray] the story goes, cops got scared, slowed down, ‘took a knee,’ and stopped making arrests.