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Knock up   /nɑk əp/   Listen
verb
Knock  v. t.  
1.
To strike with something hard or heavy; to move by striking; to drive (a thing) against something; as, to knock a ball with a bat; to knock the head against a post; to knock a lamp off the table. "When heroes knock their knotty heads together."
2.
To strike for admittance; to rap upon, as a door. "Master, knock the door hard."
3.
To impress strongly or forcibly; to astonish; to move to admiration or applause. (Slang, Eng.)
4.
To criticise; to find fault with; to disparage. "Don't knock it if you haven't tried it."
To knock in the head, or To knock on the head, to stun or kill by a blow upon the head; hence, to put am end to; to defeat, as a scheme or project; to frustrate; to quash. (Colloq.) To knock off.
(a)
To force off by a blow or by beating.
(b)
To assign to a bidder at an auction, by a blow on the counter.
(c)
To leave off (work, etc.). (Colloq.) To knock out, to force out by a blow or by blows; as, to knock out the brains.
To knock up.
(a)
To arouse by knocking.
(b)
To beat or tire out; to fatigue till unable to do more; as, the men were entirely knocked up. (Colloq.) "The day being exceedingly hot, the want of food had knocked up my followers."
(c)
(Bookbinding) To make even at the edges, or to shape into book form, as printed sheets.
(d)
To make pregnant. Often used in passive, "she got knocked up". (vulgar)


Knock  v. i.  (past & past part. knocked; pres. part. knocking)  
1.
To drive or be driven against something; to strike against something; to clash; as, one heavy body knocks against another.
2.
To strike or beat with something hard or heavy; to rap; as, to knock with a club; to knock on the door. "For harbor at a thousand doors they knocked." "Seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you."
3.
To practice evil speaking or fault-finding; to criticize habitually or captiously. (Slang, U. S.)
To knock about, to go about, taking knocks or rough usage; to wander about; to saunter. (Colloq.) "Knocking about town."
To knock up, to fail of strength; to become wearied or worn out, as with labor; to give out. "The horses were beginning to knock up under the fatigue of such severe service."
To knock off, to cease, as from work; to desist.
To knock under, to yield; to submit; to acknowledge one's self conquered; an expression probably borrowed from the practice of knocking under the table with the knuckles, when conquered. "Colonel Esmond knocked under to his fate."





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Knock up" Quotes from Famous Books



... are on the under side," said Rollo. "I mean to get a stone and knock up some of the bricks, if I can, ...
— Rollo in Rome • Jacob Abbott
... the fairy quite good-naturedly, "and you'll do it. That's quite fair. Well now, the thing to do is this: go out in the evening with a long pole, and knock up high into the branches of the trees, and glance up and down, holding your dress ...
— Little Folks (December 1884) - A Magazine for the Young • Various
... considering where her husband was. She wasn't seen much, only talked about. She's a clever woman, and by the time Carnaby's let loose she'll have played the game so well that things will be made pretty soft for him. I'm told he's a bit of a globe-trotter, sportsman, and so on. All he has to do is to knock up a book of travels, and it'll ...
— The Whirlpool • George Gissing
... and seemed solicitous for the honor of his stud—"you have jaded him by your furious gait, and seem entirely insensible to the fact that our progress for the last half hour, continued much longer, would knock up any animal. I'm not so sure, too, Guy, that we shall find the youngster, or that we shall be able to get our own bargain out of him when found. He's a tough colt, I take it, and will show fight unless you ...
— Guy Rivers: A Tale of Georgia • William Gilmore Simms
... We had to knock up the household of the secretary—a formidable personage with whom I had never been brought into contact before—and in a short time we were holding a strictly private and confidential interview with him, by the glimmer of a solitary candle, just serving to light up his severe face, which changed ...
— Mugby Junction • Charles Dickens
... King then desired that a Jeweller might be called to give his opinion of the value of it, but he was answered, that the expedient was impracticable, as no jeweller could then be supposed to be out of bed. After much entreaty his Majesty at last prevailed upon the fellow, to knock up a jeweller and shew him the ring, which as soon as he had inspected, he stood amazed, and enquired, with eyes fixed upon the fellow, who he had got in his house? to which he answered, a black-looking ugly son of a w——, who had no money in his pocket, ...
— The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753) - Volume II • Theophilus Cibber
... encouraged the station-master. "Keep right along after your noses till they knock up against Mrs. Twist's front gate. I'll look after the menagerie—" thus did he describe the Twinkler luggage. "Guess Mrs. Twist'll be sending for it as soon as you get there. Guess she forgot you. Guess ...
— Christopher and Columbus • Countess Elizabeth Von Arnim


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