knock up
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knock up
- /nɒk ʌp/
verb knocks up · knocking up · knocked up
- To put together, fabricate, or assemble, particularly if done hastily or temporarily. I'll just knock up a quick demo for the sales presentation.
- 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.
- 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,’ [...]
- 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 […]
- 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.
- To make even at the edges, or to shape into book form. to knock up printed sheets
- To straighten up a stack of paper.
