knocker-upper

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. Alternative form of knocker-up (person who knocks to awaken in the morning).
  2. .
  3. The male who has sired a pregnancy.

Pronunciation

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-knocker-upper.wav

Word forms

knocker-upper knocker-uppers

Etymology

By a regular pattern for (informal) nouns seen also in similar forms, such as fixer-upper and cleaner-upper; the sire sense involves an extra degree of wordplay, as an alternative surface analysis of knock (h)er up + -er is playfully apparent (who knocked 'er up?).

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.