Word.ws English Dictionary

knocker up

knocker up is the alternative form 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

Forms of knocker up

pluralknockers up
pluralknocker ups

Questions about knocker up

What is knocker up the alternative form of?
Knocker up is the alternative form of knocker-up.

Words near knocker up in the dictionary

  1. knocked under
  2. knocked up
  3. knocked wood
  4. knockemdowns
  5. knocker
  6. knocker up
  7. knocker ups
  8. knocker-up
  9. knocker-upper
  10. knocker-uppers
  11. knocker-ups

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: knocker up (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.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “knocker up.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/knocker_up. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.