Green’s Dictionary of Slang

knee n.

[knee v.]

often constr. with the, an attack with one’s knee, as used to hit an opponent in the testicles.

[UK]I, Mobster 124: I tried to keep her out, Tony, but she gives me the knee. I wasn’t looking for no lady to do that.
[Ire](con. 1940s) B. Behan Borstal Boy 162: Apart from the knee and the nut.
[US]‘Red’ Rudensky Gonif 94: Smitty leaped at him like a wildcat [...] giving him the knee and bloodying his face.
[US]A. Brooke Last Toke 74: Still clutching his balls, as if expecting another knee.
[Ire](con. 1920s) L. Redmond Emerald Square 81: ‘Put the boot in.’ ‘Give him the Ringsend shake hands.’ A knee in the balls.

SE in slang uses

In compounds

knee-creeper (n.)

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

[UK]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.
knee drill (n.) [esp. the prayers one needed to offer when claiming free food, drink and lodging from the Salvation Army]

insincere praying, presumably on one’s knees.

[Aus]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.’.
[UK]J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era.
[UK]N&Q 12 Ser. IX 425: Knee Drill. Church parade.
knee-knockers (n.) (also kneebangers)

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

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

(US black) to beg.

[US]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.
knee-slapper (n.) [such a joke makes the listener slap their knee with delight]

(US) an uproarious joke, often used ironically.

[US]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 .
[US]W. Burroughs Jr Speed 84: I needed a phone book which the guard thought a real knee slapper.
[US](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.
[US]S. King Dolores Claiborne 188: Laughin and shakin his head the way you do when someone tells a real knee-slapper.
[US]F. Kellerman Stalker (2001) 361: ‘That’s a real knee-slapper, Lopez,’ Hayley commented dryly.
knee-trembler (n.) (also knee-tremble, knee-wobbler) [‘A standing sexual embrace: low coll.: from ca. 1850; in C.20 predominant meaning is ‘copulation in a standing position’ (DSUE)]

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.

[UK]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.
[Aus]W. Dick Bunch of Ratbags 198: I asked her to let me give her a knee-trembler, but she refused.
[UK](con. WWII) B. Aldiss Soldier Erect 45: Shafting the girl up against the whitewashed wall [...] a knee-trembler in the sunset!
(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.
[UK](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.
[UK]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.
[Aus]B. Humphries Traveller’s Tool 8: Some of the best knee-tremblers and one-night stands I’ve ever enjoyed.
[Ire](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.
[UK]J. Cameron Brown Bread in Wengen [ebook] [T]he little Asian bird on the till was a touch of a knee trembler.
[UK]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.
[UK]J. Cameron Hell on Hoe Street 25: Her smile gave me a knee trembler.
[Scot](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.
[Scot](con. 1980s) I. Welsh Skagboys 269: The manky fucker’s gaunny knee-tremble her oan the spot.
[Aus](con. 1943) G.S. Manson Coorparoo Blues [ebook] The odd doorway held a couple going a kneetrembler.
[Scot]I. Welsh Decent Ride 412: Ah think ay the generations ay knee-tremblers that must have took place in this labyrinth.
[Ire]P Howard Braywatch 216: ‘It was a quick knee trembler up against the gable wall’.
[UK]J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 158: Vanier [...] was watching this ne plus ultra of a knee-trembler.
knee-walking (adj.) (also knee-knocking drunk, knee-walking drunk)

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

[[US]W.R. Burnett Vanity Row 43: ‘I won’t get falling down on champagne. Don’t worry. I’m very ladylike on champagne. On martinis, I promise you nothing’].
[US]E. Shepard Doom Pussy 50: Many of those present proceed to get dead, falling-down, knee-walking drunk.
[US]Eble Campus Sl. Mar. 5: knee-walking – drunk.
[Aus]Hackworth & Sherman About Face (1991) 139: We ate steaks, sang around a big bonfire, and got knee-knocking drunk.
Cornier et al. Wildcats 198: Some sailors can get knee-walking drunk on two cans [HDAS].
[US]J. Stahl I, Fatty 46: Jack London came in knee-walking drunk.
knee work (n.)

(US) fellatio.

[US]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’.

In phrases

take a knee (v.) [US football imagery: ‘[T]he quarterback of a team holding the ball while leading and wishing simply to “run out the clock”, would accept the ball and kneel, stopping play and letting the clock run’ J. Gibbons Feb. 2022]

(US) to pause, slow down.

[US]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.