knocked up adj.
1. tired, jaded, used up.
![]() | Belphegor (1788) 7: My horse was knocked up and I was obliged to leave him. | |
![]() | Diary (1891) II 588: So he’s quite knocked up! | |
![]() | ‘Diary of a Sporting Etonian’ Sporting Mag. Dec. XV 111/1: Knocked up – pain in my side. | |
![]() | Hamlet Travestie III ii: Two wretched knock’d-up hacks to draw his hearse. | |
![]() | Creevey Papers (1948) 94: We sat this morning till four [...] so am knocked up and can add no more. | letter ? May in Gore|
![]() | Real Life in London I 187: The dancing party was knock’d up, and were lobbing their lollys, half asleep and half awake, on the table, bowing as it were to the magnanimous influence of Old Tom. | |
![]() | Martin Chuzzlewit (1995) 295: ‘I wish you would pull off my boots for me,’ said Martin, dropping into one of the chairs. ‘I am quite knocked up.’. | |
![]() | Bell’s Life in Sydney 30 Sept. : Mr Atkinson, half asleep, half awake, and wholly knocked up from his exertions on the ‘light fantastic ’. | |
![]() | Recollections of G. Hamlyn (1891) 215: I forgot till this moment a most important message. I was rather knocked up, you see, and went to sleep, and that sent it out of my head. | |
![]() | Semi-Attached Couple (1979) 52: I may as well write tonight, though I am completely knocked up. | |
![]() | Term of His Natural Life (1897) 149: Go and sleep, my man [...] You are knocked up. We’ll talk in the morning. | |
![]() | Tag, Rag & Co. 102: I was that dead knocked up that I fell asleep with the reins in my hands. | |
![]() | Jottings [...] of a Bengal ‘qui hye’ 125: Every one [...] being quite tired, done-up and knocked-up. | |
![]() | ‘Knocked Up’ in Roderick (1967–9) I 244: I’m too knocked up to eat a bite—I’m too knocked up to smoke. | |
![]() | On the Wallaby 262: Owing to the scarcity of grass our horses had next to nothing to eat, and were well-nigh knocked up. | |
![]() | New Boys’ World 22 Dec. 79: Sit down, mate; you look a bit knocked up. | |
![]() | ‘The Strangers’ Friend’ in Lone Hand (Sydney) Nov. 20/1: One man was knocked up and very ill. | |
![]() | Sun (Kalgoorlie, WA) 27 July 8/5: [US speaker] ‘We’ve had such a run of glad-hand stunts that every other morning we feel “all in,” or in Australian parlance, “quite knocked up”’. | |
![]() | Lonely Plough (1931) 211: Mr. Wigmore was knocked up, probably wanted to rest. | |
![]() | Cockney Cavalcade 244: I see her going to work the other day, and she looks fair knocked up. | |
![]() | Battlers 198: The girl and the boy were ‘knocked up’. They could not possibly go on. | |
![]() | Jimmy Brockett 63: They’re not hurting each other. They’re knocked up. There isn’t enough force behind any of those punches to blow a candle out. | |
![]() | With Hooves of Brass 114: [T]he gang were feeling knocked up after the day in the burning heat, and the long climb up the track at the end of it. | |
![]() | (con. WWII) And Then We Heard The Thunder (1964) 377: Will you please take me home? I’m knocked up. | |
![]() | Lily on the Dustbin 138: When an Australian girl announces she is ‘knocked up’ she means tired out. |
2. bankrupt, impoverished.
![]() | Dead Alive (1783) 5: Poor master’s knock’d up at last. | |
![]() | Pierce Egan’s Life in London 6 Mar. 46/2: My business is completely knocked up. |
3. dead.
![]() | ‘On the Death of Benjamin Bryant, commonly called Big Ben’ in Sporting Mag. June IV 179/2: Big Ben knock’d up, and boxing now no more. | |
![]() | AS XI:3 199: Knocked off/up/over. | ‘American Euphemisms for Dying’ in
4. (Irish) drunk.
![]() | Song Smith 77: My dose last night I tuk it [...] Myself was knock’d up, and the watchmen knock’d down. | |
![]() | Comic Sketches 26: While others would say he had, ‘Bung’d his eye — Was knocked up — How came ye so — Had got his little hat on — Top-Heavy — Pot- Valiant — That he had been in the sun — That he was in for it’. | |
![]() | Crim.-Con. Gaz. 9 Feb. 43/3: elements of fuddling 1. Comfortable. 2 Merry. 3. Noisy. 4. Tipsy. 5. Fairly in for’t. 6. Done up. 7. Amorous. 8. Knock’d down. 9. Knock’d up. 10. Finish’d. | |
![]() | ‘Biddy Magee’ Dublin Comic Songster 338: The whiskey wint round in quarts galore, / Those who were knock’d up fell on the flure. | |
![]() | True Drunkard’s Delight. |
5. (orig. US, also knocked) pregnant.
![]() | Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. 166: knocked up In the United States, amongst females, the phrase is equivalent to being enceinte, so that Englishmen often unconsciously commit themselves when amongst our Yankee cousins. | |
, , | ![]() | Sl. Dict. |
![]() | Lustful Memoirs of a Young and Passionated Girl 36: I saw he was afraid she might be knocked up as he expressed it. | |
![]() | Gas-House McGinty 223: I got a Polack Jane knocked up. | |
![]() | Fabulous Clipjoint (1949) 7: I hope she’s smart because otherwise she’ll be coming home knocked up one of these days. | |
![]() | (con. c.1915) in Ozark Folksongs and Folklore (1992) II 629: I believe I’m knocked up higher than a kite. | |
![]() | Guntz 86: They find that she bin knocked up. | |
![]() | Last Exit to Brooklyn 83: We didnt know she was knocked up until she was about 7 months gone. | |
![]() | Fireworks (1988) 169: So go peddle your ass [...] You’re already knocked up, so what’s to worry? | ‘Sunrise at Midnight’ in|
![]() | Dict. Aus. Swearing & Sex Sayings 77: KNOCKED UP — Female during pregnancy. | |
![]() | Muscle for the Wing 207: How would you know you’re knocked up? | |
![]() | Suspect Device 29: The knocked-up bitch smelled fantastic. | ‘Vegan Reich’ in Home|
![]() | Birthday 36: Jenny’s parents didn’t put a spoke in the wheel as long as she wasn’t knocked up. | |
![]() | Thrill City [ebook] Why the hell did I have to get knocked up by a broke journo? | |
![]() | Frank Sinatra in a Blender [ebook] So you’re sayin’ if this broad you’re seein’ got knocked up you’d let her keep it? |
6. (Aus.) of an animal, angry.
![]() | Colonial Reformer III 164: There wouldn’t have been any sense in charging the whole family, like a knocked-up bullock meeting a picnic party. |
7. emotional, floored by emotion.
![]() | Foveaux 46: He’s got me completely knocked up. I’m a lonely man. [...] I cry meself to sleep sometimes. |
8. defeated, in a difficult situation.
![]() | Essential Lenny Bruce 50: He has the film industry knocked up. |