Word for the day knock up

[Josiah]

knock up

This expression has a number of meaning paticularly in the UK. In the US the expression is pretty much limited to references to pregnancy and how it came about.

Definitions

verb (adverb, mainly transitive)

• Also: knock together (informal) to assemble quickly; improvise ⇒ to knock up a set of shelves
• (British, informal) to waken; rouse ⇒ to knock someone up early
• (slang) to make pregnant
• (British, informal) to exhaust ⇒ the heavy work knocked him up
• (cricket) to score (runs)
• (intransitive) (tennis, squash, badminton) to practise or hit the ball about informally, esp before a match

noun

knock-up

• a practice session at tennis, squash, or a similar game

 

[jujube]

I know I got the major giggles when I was first asked if I needed a "knock-up call" on my first trip to England in 1967. Uh, no, getting knocked-up was what I was trying to avoid.....

 

[Falcon]

Knock up is two words.

 

[hollydolly]

'Tis true , the word Knocked up is quite a demeaning way in the uk and is more commonly used among the uneducated to describe someone who is pregnant

To get knocked up is to get pregnant..usually by someone who's name may be unknown or conveniently 'forgotten' by the blooming mother to be..

A knock up call in a hotel is a pre-arranged alarm call ( rarely used in the hospitality world now)

''Knocked him up'' in your example of the man and the heavy work isn't really correct Josiah ..mostly it would be used in the context of someone who is physically injured or ill.. rather than exhausted ... he's knocked up in hospital with a broken leg,/she's knocked up in bed at home with pneumonia ( slang again)

 

[oakapple]

We used to call practise badminton and tennis a knock about, perhaps the knock up is an earlier use, or from a different part of the UK.So many words have differing meanings in the English language.

 

[applecruncher]

I've always disliked this term and never used it. Here in US it means pregnant and (to me) is crude. There was a movie "Knocked Up" several years ago and I refused to see it.

 

[Ken N Tx]

''Knocked him up'' in your example of the man and the heavy work isn't really correct Josiah ..mostly it would be used in the context of someone who is physically injured or ill.. rather than exhausted ... he's knocked up in hospital with a broken leg,/she's knocked up in bed at home with pneumonia ( slang again)

Sounds like "Laid up"..
.

 

[hollydolly]

Sounds like "Laid up"..
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Ken the more polite here use 'laid up'' instead of knocked up..