Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A hinged fixture, such as a metal ring or bar, used for knocking on a door.
- noun Vulgar Slang A woman's breasts.
- noun A goblin or dwarf said to live under the earth and direct miners to ore by knocking.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun One who knocks.
- noun A spirit or goblin supposed to dwell in mines, and to indicate the presence of rich veins of ore by knocking.
- noun A knob, bar, or ring of metal attached to an outer door, by knocking with which persons seeking admittance can attract the notice of the inmates. It is usually so held by a hinge that it can be lifted and allowed to fall against a metal plate or stud, giving a sharp blow. It has now generally given place to the door-bell.
- noun In milling, a device attached to a flour-bolt to jar or shake it at intervals, in order to free the cloth from the flour.
- noun One who keeps up a system of ‘knocking’ or persistent attack, with ulterior motives. See knock, v. i., 4.
- noun A sort of pendant to a wig.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun One who, or that which, knocks; specifically, an instrument, or kind of hammer, fastened to a door, to be used in seeking for admittance.
- noun Slang. A person strikingly handsome, beautiful, or fine; one who wins admiration; a “stunner.”
- noun A species of large cockroach, especially
Blabera gigantea , of semitropical America, which is able to produce a loud knocking sound. - noun vulgar a woman's breast.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A device, usually
hinged with a strikingplate , used forknocking on adoor . - noun A person who
knocks (denigrates ) many things. - noun slang (usually in plural) A woman's
breasts . - noun A
dwarf ,goblin , orsprite imagined to dwell inmines and to indicate the presence of ore by knocking particularly in Cardigan etc. in South Wales (18th..19th century). - noun pinball A
mechanical device in apinball table that produces a loudpercussive noise.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a person who knocks (as seeking to gain admittance)
- noun (Yiddish) a big shot who knows it and acts that way; a boastful immoderate person
- noun either of two soft fleshy milk-secreting glandular organs on the chest of a woman
- noun a device (usually metal and ornamental) attached by a hinge to a door
- noun one who disparages or belittles the worth of something
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Startled, I look up, and see that the knocker is a man who looked a bit like this guy.
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In England, one solution to this problem was to hire someone called a knocker-up.
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How do we support the Navy Captain, a ring knocker from the Naval Academy, who was deep selected for his first star two years ahead of his classmates.
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Too weary to walk round the board and open the door, she called the knocker in, though Clovis had warned her that in Detroit it was a dangerous thing to do.
The Dollmaker Harriette Arnow 1954
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I walked up to his front door, and knocked in a manner to denote with sufficient distinctiveness that the mood of the knocker was the imperative.
The Motor Pirate G. Sidney Paternoster
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The knocker is a thing which is generally composed of brass or iron.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 1, July 24, 1841 Various
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At last he went, and I sat down to my chicken; but the knocker was at it again before I/[Page 258]/had eaten two mouthfuls!
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Williams Wynn's door, not far from this house, I saw a gold knocker, which is said to be unscrewed every night lest it should be stolen.
Passages from the English Notebooks, Complete Nathaniel Hawthorne 1834
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Williams Wynn's door, not far from this house, I saw a gold knocker, which is said to be unscrewed every night lest it should be stolen.
Passages from the English Notebooks, Volume 1. Nathaniel Hawthorne 1834
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(where it's poetically referred to as a knocker) -- that's another matter entirely.
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