knock up
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /nɒk ʌp/
Forms: form: knocks up
form: knocking up
form: knocked up
form: knocked up
Senses: examples: text: I'll just knock up a quick demo for the sales presentation.
synonyms: knock together
run up
glosses: To put together, fabricate, or assemble, particularly if done hastily or temporarily.
examples: text: However, by dint of beating about a little in the dark, and now and then knocking up a peaceable inhabitant to inquire the way, we at last came to something which there was no mistaking.
ref: 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “chapter 15”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:
text: “Very sorry to knock you up, Watson,” said he, “but it's the common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she retorted upon me, and I on you.”
ref: 1892, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of the Speckled Band, page 1:
text: ‘I didn't knock you up when I came in,’ Peregrine said. ‘There seemed no point. It was getting light. I just thought I’d leave the note to wake me at seven. And oddly enough I did sleep. Heavily.’
ref: 1966, Ngaio Marsh, Death at the Dolphin, page 160:
glosses: To awaken (someone) as by knocking at the door; rouse; call; summon; also, to go door-to-door on election day to persuade a candidate's supporters to go to the polling station and vote. See also knocker up.
examples: text: ‘Now, mamma,’ he said, when he went out, ‘take notice, you are not to knock up your god-daughter with gossip,’ [...]
ref: 1835, Charlotte Brontë, chapter XVII, in Villette:
text: The day being exceedingly hot, the want of food had knocked up my followers […]
ref: 1861, John Petherick, Egypt, the Soudan and Central Africa, page 389:
glosses: To exhaust; wear out; tire out; to fatigue until unable to do more.
examples: text: […] the horses were beginning to knock up under the fatigue of such severe service […]
ref: 1856, Thomas de Quincey, Memorials, page 81:
text: I met one of your dons at tea, and he said that your degree was not in the least a proof of your abilities: he said that you knocked up and got flurried in examinations.
ref: 1907, E.M. Forster, The Longest Journey, Part I, VII [Uniform ed., p. 87]
glosses: To become exhausted or worn out; to fail of strength; to become wearied, as with labor; to give out.
examples: text: I guess his summer plans are shot now that he knocked his girlfriend up.
text: “And how many other girls has he knocked up?” “Would you keep your voice down? Mom's home.” She pressed her hands to her head. “I just don't understand how you could ditch Rowan and get knocked up by Scott, like, right away.”
ref: 2015, Jaime Loren, Waiting for April, Pan, →ISBN:
glosses: To impregnate, especially out of wedlock. See knocked up.
examples: text: The Tennis & Rackets Association - Tournament Rules
Official Knock up: if the players knock up together a maximum of five minutes shall be permitted; if they knock up separately each player shall be permitted to knock up for a maximum of five minutes.
qualifier: racket sports
glosses: To gently hit the ball back and forth before a tennis match, as practice or warm-up, and to gauge the state of the playing surface, lighting, etc. See knock-up.
examples: text: to knock up printed sheets
topics: arts
bookbinding
crafts
hobbies
lifestyle
glosses: To make even at the edges, or to shape into book form.
topics: media
printing
publishing
glosses: To straighten up a stack of paper.
Synonyms: sense: to put together
word: construct
word: build
sense: if hasty
word: kludge
sense: to exhaust
word: tire
word: wear down
word: wear out
word: tire
sense: to become exhausted
word: tire
sense: to become exhausted
word: weary
sense: to awaken someone
word: bring round
word: wake up
word: awaken
sense: to impregnate
word: get with child
word: impregnate
Derived terms: word: knockup
word: knock-up
Related terms: knocked up
knocker-up
knocker-upper
knocking shop