Word.ws English Dictionary

knocker-ups

knocker-ups is the plural of knocker-up.

Meaning of knocker-up

Noun

knocker-up (plural knocker-ups)

  1. (UK, historical) A person whose job was to go from house to house in the early morning and wake up workers by tapping on the bedroom window with a long pole or similarly convenient implement.
    • ... And Capper was a very important man. He was the knocker-up in the village of Polkingthorpe Brig — that is to say, he got up early every morning and went round with his pole, tapping on the bedroom windows and waking up the people in time for them to get to work... Old Capper got his long pole...1942, Eric Knight, The Flying Yorkshireman, Benediction Classics, →ISBN

Questions about knocker-ups

What is knocker-ups the plural of?
Knocker-ups is the plural of knocker-up.

Words near knocker-ups in the dictionary

  1. knocker up
  2. knocker ups
  3. knocker-up
  4. knocker-upper
  5. knocker-uppers
  6. knocker-ups
  7. knockered
  8. knockerless
  9. knockers
  10. knockers up
  11. knockest

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: knocker-ups (page history and authors); knocker-up (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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