knee n.
often constr. with the, an attack with one’s knee, as used to hit an opponent in the testicles.
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. | ||
(con. 1940s) Borstal Boy 162: Apart from the knee and the nut. | ||
Gonif 94: Smitty leaped at him like a wildcat [...] giving him the knee and bloodying his face. | ||
Last Toke 74: Still clutching his balls, as if expecting another knee. | ||
(con. 1920s) Emerald Square 81: ‘Put the boot in.’ ‘Give him the Ringsend shake hands.’ A knee in the balls. |
SE in slang uses
In compounds
(Scot.) a voyeur who taunts amorous couples in the outdoors.
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.
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.’. | ||
Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era. | ||
N&Q 12 Ser. IX 425: Knee Drill. Church parade. |
(US) knickerbockers or men’s knee-length shorts.
Among Thieves 383: Those co-eds were rather cute in their knee-knocker outfits. | ||
et al. Dict. Newf. Eng. 287: Knee knockers: men’s trousers gathered in at the knees; knickerbockers [HDAS]. | ||
Street Talk 2 69: Cool kneebangers, brah! |
(US black) to beg.
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.
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 . | ||
Speed 84: I needed a phone book which the guard thought a real knee slapper. | ||
(con. 1969) 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. | ||
Dolores Claiborne 188: Laughin and shakin his head the way you do when someone tells a real knee-slapper. | ||
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.
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. | ||
Bunch of Ratbags 198: I asked her to let me give her a knee-trembler, but she refused. | ||
(con. WWII) 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. | ||
(con. c.1900) East End Und. 110: That was what you called a ‘fourpenny touch’ or a ‘knee trembler’ – they wouldn’t stay with you all night. | in Samuel||
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. | ||
Traveller’s Tool 8: Some of the best knee-tremblers and one-night stands I’ve ever enjoyed. | ||
(con. 1930s) 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. | ||
Brown Bread in Wengen [ebook] [T]he little Asian bird on the till was a touch of a knee trembler. | ||
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. | ||
Hell on Hoe Street 25: Her smile gave me a knee trembler. | ||
(con. 1980s) 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. | ||
(con. 1980s) Skagboys 269: The manky fucker’s gaunny knee-tremble her oan the spot. | ||
(con. 1943) Coorparoo Blues [ebook] The odd doorway held a couple going a kneetrembler. | ||
Decent Ride 412: Ah think ay the generations ay knee-tremblers that must have took place in this labyrinth. | ||
Braywatch 216: ‘It was a quick knee trembler up against the gable wall’. | ||
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.
[ | 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’]. | |
Doom Pussy 50: Many of those present proceed to get dead, falling-down, knee-walking drunk. | ||
Campus Sl. Mar. 5: knee-walking – drunk. | ||
About Face (1991) 139: We ate steaks, sang around a big bonfire, and got knee-knocking drunk. | ||
et al. Wildcats 198: Some sailors can get knee-walking drunk on two cans [HDAS]. | ||
I, Fatty 46: Jack London came in knee-walking drunk. |
(US) fellatio.
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
(US) to pause, slow down.
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. |