Sekirov Dictionary

knock up

/nɒk ʌp/

verb 8
knock-up noun 3
forms 4

verb8

•
(informal) To put together, fabricate, or assemble, particularly if done hastily or temporarily.
- I'll just knock up a quick demo for the sales presentation.
•
(slang) To impregnate, especially out of wedlock or accidentally. See knocked up.
- I guess his summer plans are shot now that he knocked his girlfriend up.
•
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.
- 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.
•
(UK) 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.
- 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. — 1851
•
(old-fashioned) To exhaust; wear out; tire out; to fatigue until unable to do more.
- ‘Now, mamma,’ he said, when he went out, ‘take notice, you are not to knock up your god-daughter with gossip,’ [...] — 1835
•
(old-fashioned) To become exhausted or worn out; to fail of strength; to become wearied, as with labor; to give out.
- […] the horses were beginning to knock up under the fatigue of such severe service […] — 1856
•
To make even at the edges, or to shape into book form.
- to knock up printed sheets
To straighten up a stack of paper.

knock-up noun3

•
A short practice session before a tennis match.
- In the way of friendly knockups I played at times with both the Renshaws and Lawford, but at that time there is no doubt that they were better than I was. — 1932
•
(slang) A pregnancy.
- When will we wake up? I see young girls pregnant and young boys adding up their “knock-ups” like a scorecard at a mob gambling venue. — 2016
•
Something constructed shoddily or hastily.
- One of those unadorned late-fifties hillside knockups posing as intentionally contemporary but really the product of a tight construction budget. — 2000

forms

knocked up · knocking up · knocks up · knock-ups

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