knacker - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From Old Norse hnak (“saddle”) (whence Icelandic hnakkur (“saddle”)).

knacker (plural knackers)

  1. One who makes knickknacks, toys, etc.
    Near-synonym: toymaker
  2. One of two or more pieces of bone or wood held loosely between the fingers, and struck together by moving the hand.
    Synonym: clapper
  3. (archaic) A harnessmaker or saddlemaker; their place of business (e.g., saddlery).
    • 1707, J[ohn] Mortimer, The Whole Art of Husbandry; or, The Way of Managing and Improving of Land. […], London: […] J[ohn] H[umphreys] for H[enry] Mortlock […], and J[onathan] Robinson […], →OCLC:
      Plow-wright , Cart-wright, Knacker and Smith
  4. One who slaughters and (especially) renders worn-out livestock (especially horses) and sells their flesh, bones and hides.
    Near-synonyms: slaughterer, slaughterman
  5. One who dismantles old ships, houses, etc. and sells their components.
    Near-synonyms: salvager, salvor; scrapper, wrecker, breaker; shipbreaker, car breaker
  6. (Ireland, UK, ethnic slur, offensive) An itinerant person, especially one of Irish Traveller heritage.
  7. (Ireland, offensive, slang) A person of lower social class; a chav, skanger, or similar.
    Synonyms: dobber, scobe; see also Thesaurus:chav
  8. (UK, slang, vulgar, chiefly in the plural) A testicle.
    • 2013, Perry Gamsby, Never Be Unsaid, page 136:
      He looked like someone had put a 9mm full metal jacket round through his left scrotum. He even had his mouth open in some parody of a soundless scream, much as I imagined I would do if someone shot my left knacker off.
  9. An old, worn-out horse.
    • 2014, K. Bannerman, Mark of the Magpie, page 170:
      Believe me, you can get an old knacker for cheap at the glue yard, but it won't carry you as far as a thoroughbred!
  10. (UK, dialect, obsolete) A collier's horse.

dismantler of ships, houses, etc.

knacker (third-person singular simple present knackers, present participle knackering, simple past and past participle knackered)

  1. (UK, slang, transitive) To tire out, exhaust; to beat up and use up (something), leaving it worn out and damaged.
    Carrying that giant statue up those stairs completely knackered me.
    That table that I was going to put the statue on may not suffice, as it's completely knackered.
  2. (UK, slang, transitive) To reprimand.