Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. tired, jaded, used up.

1778		M.P. Andrews Belphegor (1788) 7: My horse was knocked up and I was obliged to leave him.
1788		Mme D’Arblay Diary (1891) II 588: So he’s quite knocked up!
1799		‘Diary of a Sporting Etonian’ Sporting Mag. Dec. XV 111/1: Knocked up – pain in my side.
1811		J. Poole Hamlet Travestie III ii: Two wretched knock’d-up hacks to draw his hearse.
1812		T. Creevey letter ? May in Gore Creevey Papers (1948) 94: We sat this morning till four [...] so am knocked up and can add no more.
1821		‘An Amateur’ 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.
1843–44		Dickens 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.’.
1854		Bell’s Life in Sydney 30 Sept. : Mr Atkinson, half asleep, half awake, and wholly knocked up from his exertions on the ‘light fantastic ’.
1859		H. Kingsley 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.
1860		E. Eden Semi-Attached Couple (1979) 52: I may as well write tonight, though I am completely knocked up.
1874		M. Clarke Term of His Natural Life (1897) 149: Go and sleep, my man [...] You are knocked up. We’ll talk in the morning.
1883		J. Greenwood Tag, Rag & Co. 102: I was that dead knocked up that I fell asleep with the reins in my hands.
1885		L. Emanuel Jottings [...] of a Bengal ‘qui hye’ 125: Every one [...] being quite tired, done-up and knocked-up.
1893		H. Lawson ‘Knocked Up’ in Roderick (1967–9) I 244: I’m too knocked up to eat a bite—I’m too knocked up to smoke.
1894		G. Boothby On the Wallaby 262: Owing to the scarcity of grass our horses had next to nothing to eat, and were well-nigh knocked up.
1906		New Boys’ World 22 Dec. 79: Sit down, mate; you look a bit knocked up.
1907		H. Lawson ‘The Strangers’ Friend’ in Lone Hand (Sydney) Nov. 20/1: One man was knocked up and very ill.
1913		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”’.
1914		C. Holme Lonely Plough (1931) 211: Mr. Wigmore was knocked up, probably wanted to rest.
1935		G. Ingram Cockney Cavalcade 244: I see her going to work the other day, and she looks fair knocked up.
1941		K. Tennant Battlers 198: The girl and the boy were ‘knocked up’. They could not possibly go on.
1951		D. Stivens 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.
1961		R.S. Close 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.
1962		(con. WWII) J.O. Killens And Then We Heard The Thunder (1964) 377: Will you please take me home? I’m knocked up.
1982		N. Keesing Lily on the Dustbin 138: When an Australian girl announces she is ‘knocked up’ she means tired out.

2. bankrupt, impoverished.

1781		J. O’Keeffe Dead Alive (1783) 5: Poor master’s knock’d up at last.
1825		Pierce Egan’s Life in London 6 Mar. 46/2: My business is completely knocked up.

3. dead.

1794		‘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.
1936		L. Pound ‘American Euphemisms for Dying’ in AS XI:3 199: Knocked off/up/over.

4. (Irish) drunk.

1801		C. Dibdin Yngr Song Smith 77: My dose last night I tuk it [...] Myself was knock’d up, and the watchmen knock’d down.
1804		C.L. Lewes 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’.
1839		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.
1841		‘Biddy Magee’ Dublin Comic Songster 338: The whiskey wint round in quarts galore, / Those who were knock’d up fell on the flure.
1933		‘William Juniper’ True Drunkard’s Delight.

5. (orig. US, also knocked) pregnant.

1860		Hotten 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.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1904		Lustful Memoirs of a Young and Passionated Girl 36: I saw he was afraid she might be knocked up as he expressed it.
1933		J.T. Farrell Gas-House McGinty 223: I got a Polack Jane knocked up.
1947		F. Brown Fabulous Clipjoint (1949) 7: I hope she’s smart because otherwise she’ll be coming home knocked up one of these days.
1954		(con. c.1915) in Randolph & Legman Ozark Folksongs and Folklore (1992) II 629: I believe I’m knocked up higher than a kite.
1962		F. Norman Guntz 86: They find that she bin knocked up.
1964		H. Selby Jr Last Exit to Brooklyn 83: We didnt know she was knocked up until she was about 7 months gone.
c.1973		J. Thompson ‘Sunrise at Midnight’ in Fireworks (1988) 169: So go peddle your ass [...] You’re already knocked up, so what’s to worry?
1988		D. Woodrell Muscle for the Wing 207: How would you know you’re knocked up?
1998		Neil Palmer ‘Vegan Reich’ in Home Suspect Device 29: The knocked-up bitch smelled fantastic.
2001		A. Sillitoe Birthday 36: Jenny’s parents didn’t put a spoke in the wheel as long as she wasn’t knocked up.
2010		L. Redhead Thrill City [ebook] Why the hell did I have to get knocked up by a broke journo?
2012		M. McBride 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.

1890

‘Rolf Boldrewood’ 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.

1939

K. Tennant 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.

1967

L. Bruce Essential Lenny Bruce 50: He has the film industry knocked up.