| 释义 |
knocker|ˈnɒkə(r)|
[f. knock v. + -er1.]
1. a. One who or that which knocks; esp. one who knocks at a door in order to gain admittance; also = knocker down (see 5).
1388Wyclif Pref. Ep. Jerome viii, To the askere me ȝyueth, and to the knockere me openeth. c1425Found. St. Bartholomew's 5 The asker.. schall resceyue, the seker shall fynde, and the rynger or knokker shall entre. 1552Huloet, Knocker, percussor, pulsator. 1652Sparke Scintilla Altaris (1663) 103 Lest with those untimely knockers at the bride-chamber door, we..be repulsed. 1821Byron Juan iii. xxxiv, Rocks bewitch'd that open to the knockers. 1888Pall Mall G. 20 Apr. 11/2 Cardiff sent up two boxers. .. The more terrible..eventually succumbed to a talented Irishman, who knocked out the would be knocker.
b. A spirit or goblin imagined to dwell in mines, and to indicate the presence of ore by knocking.
1747Hooson Miner's Dict. L ij b, Miners say that the Knocker is some Being that Inhabits in the..Hollows of the Earth. 1885Chamb. Jrnl. II. 371/2 In the Cardigan mines, the knockers are still heard, indicating where a rich lode may be expected. 1898Watts-Dunton Aylwin iii. (1899) 24 She had not only heard but seen these knockers. They were thick-set dwarfs.
c. slang. A person of ‘striking’ appearance, or who moves others to admiration. (Cf. knock v. 2 c, and stunner.)
1612Field Woman a Weather-cocke i. C ij, You should be a Knocker then by the Mothers side. 1620Middleton Chaste Maid ii. ii, They're pretty children both, but here's a wench Will be a knocker. 1664Cotton Scarron. 88 That old Knocker good Anchises.
d. A knock-down blow. rare.
1674N. Fairfax Bulk & Selv. 96 The backstroke will be sure to give him a knocker. 1842Newcastle Song Bk. 148 (E.D.D.) He lifted up his great long airm, Me soul he gave him sec a knocker.
e. A fault-finder, one who is addicted to captious criticism. (Cf. knock v. 2 f.) colloq. (orig. U.S.).
1898in Wentworth & Flexner Dict. Amer. Slang (1960) 308/2 That pack of knockers and snapping curs. 1901[see knock v. 2 f]. 1911Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 22 Apr. 4/2 The Cranbrook Herald says that the ‘pestilential knocker’ has been doing his best to injure the Southeast Kootenay by misrepresenting the condition of a party of English settlers. 1923J. Moses Beyond City Gates 154 The ‘knocker’ of his home town is, on this line of deduction, a ‘knocker’ of his Empire, a destroyer of thought, labour, and enterprise. 1928Sunday Express 18 Mar. 5/2 All the knockers were there,..yearning to find fault. 1956W. H. Whyte Organization Man (1957) ix. 124 This system virtually ensures that the over-zealous or the ‘knocker’ type of man will not get ahead. 1958Times Lit. Suppl. 24 Jan. 37/3 Today it would be difficult to get together such a team of ‘knockers’ as Harold Stearns did for his Civilization in the United States. Cheerfulness has been creeping in among the intelligentsia. 1962M. Harris in P. Coleman Austral. Civilization 57 It is said that Australians are ‘knockers’; that is, they gain pleasure from seeing superiority in talent, intellect or energy reduced to the scale of average mediocrity. 1969Telegraph (Brisbane) 5 Dec. 3/2 Knockers are people who identify the ordinary Australian bloke as an easy-going, irresponsible oaf who spends more time drinking and arguing with his mates than working. 1972Shooting Times & Country Mag. 1 July 26/3 Today the ‘knockers’ seem to delight in slamming anything British.
2. a. An appendage, usually of iron or brass, fastned to a door, and hinged so that it may be made to strike against a metal plate, to attract the attention of those within. (The most usual sense; cf. knock v. 1.)
1598Florio, Picchiatoio, a hammer to knocke at a doore with, a striker, a knocker. 1709Steele Tatler No. 77 ⁋2 One could hardly find a Knocker at a Door in a whole Street after a Midnight Expedition of these Beaux Esprits. 1791Mrs. Radclife Rom. Forest ii, La Motte,..advanced to the gate and lifted a massy knocker. 1863Geo. Eliot Romola xviii, Tito found the heavy iron knocker on the door thickly bound round with wool. 1898J. T. Fowler Durham Cath. 63 The famous bronze knocker on the great north door.
Comb.1844J. T. J. Hewlett Parsons & W. vi, Knocker-wrenching and sign-removing were in vogue in my day.
†b. colloq. or slang. A kind of bob or pendant to a wig. Obs.
1818La Belle Assemblée XVII. No. 106. 27 The physicians with their great wigs had disappeared, and had given place to those who wore a wig with a knocker. 1837New Monthly Mag. XLIX. 550 Pig-tails and ‘knockers’ superseded the ponderous ‘clubs’.
c. Phr. up to the knocker: in good condition; in the height of fashion; ‘up to the mark’. slang.
1844Selby London by Night i. ii, Jack. How do you feel? Ned. Not quite up to the knocker. 1896Westm. Gaz. 24 Dec. 1/3 We was dressed up to the knocker.
d. Austral. and N.Z. (See quots.)
1933L. G. D. Acland in Press (Christchurch, N.Z.) 4 Nov. 15/7 Knocker, a small leather pad fixed near the heel of shears to keep the blades from closing too far. 1938R. M. Burdon High Country viii. 84 A piece of rawhide known as a knocker is now used to prevent the shears clashing when closed, but before this was introduced the clack and snap of steel meeting steel was a noise inseparable from any busy shearing shed. 1941Baker Dict. Austral. Slang 42 Knocker, a leather pad fixed near the heel of a pair of hand shears to prevent the blades closing too deeply. 1959H. P. Tritton Time means Tucker 31/1 Shears do not click. The gullets of the blades are filled with soft wood, or sometimes with cork. These are called ‘knockers’, and they stop the heels of the blade from meeting. 1965J. S. Gunn Terminol. Shearing Industry i. 34 Knockers, small pads, usually of leather or softwood, inset near the heel of hand shears. These stopped jarring and prevented the blades from closing too far and cutting the shearer's hand... It is likely that the name developed because they knocked together, but it could be a misspelling of ‘nock’.
e. One who buys from, or sells to, persons at their residences; a door-to-door salesman; also, the action of selling (etc.) from door to door. Phr. on the knocker (and varr.), (engaged in buying from, selling to, or canvassing) from door to door; also, (obtained) on credit.
1934P. Allingham Cheapjack xiii. 166 A ‘knocker-worker’ is one who sells things at people's front doors. Ibid. xv. 186 ‘The knocker's the only game in the winter’ said London Joe. 1936Evening News 11 Dec. 11/1 A valued and regular lady customer drives up..and..orders petrol..finds she has left her handbag at home... The hand..yells out: ‘Oi, there's a lidy 'ere wants some juice on the knocker!’ 1959Listener 7 May 802/2 That record of progress in Blackpool shows what can be done if we work, in the first place, as our canvassers say, on the knocker. 1959G. Savage Antique Collector's Handbk. 156 ‘Knockers’ are jewellery and antique dealers who operate by calling from door to door in search of something to buy, and their purchases are sold to larger dealers. 1960A. Prior in Pick of Today's Short Stories XI. 185 If I kept getting as much jewellery for him on the knocker then perhaps he wouldn't have to sell. 1963J. F. Straker Final Witness viii. 81 Once she got a whole pile of stuff on the knocker, and then the firm came and took it back. 1967Sun 17 July 7/2 The ‘knocker boys’..trick old ladies into parting with family heirlooms for a fraction of their value. 1968M. Allingham Cargo of Eagles ix. 116 I've worked the knocker if you know what that means—the door-to-door selling racket. 1970Sunday Times 18 Jan. 37 A knocker was a specially trained salesman working, not under the authority and generally not in the pay of a district sales agent, but for the company itself, out of the Dayton executive offices.
f. pl. The female breasts. vulgar.
1941J. Smiley Hash House Lingo 25 Fix the knockers—look at the nice breasts on that woman. 1948N. Mailer Naked & Dead (1949) iii. ii. 484 Look at the knockers on her, Murray says. 1967J. Kennaway Some Gorgeous Accident i. 15 She was slight..but with great little knockers—breasts being for mothers. 1970Private Eye 11 Sept. 16 Hello, luv! Phew, look at them knockers!! 1972M. J. Bosse Incident at Naha 24 I'm jealous. She has those big knockers, and I'm afraid you like them.
†3. A castanet: cf. knacker n.1 2. Obs.
1648Gage West Ind. xi. (1655) 37 Capering and dancing with their castannettas, or knockers on their fingers.
4. ‘An attachment in a flour-bolt to jar the frame and shake the flour from the meshes of the bolting-cloth’ (Knight Dict. Mech. 1875).
5. With adverbs, as knocker-down, also = knock-down B. 1; knocker-off, (a) = knock-off A 1.; (b) Underworld slang, a thief; knocker-up, a person who goes round the streets in the early morning to awaken people.
1611Cotgr., Assommeur, a knocker, feller, or beater, downe. 1638Ford Lady's Trial i. i, A taker-up, Rather indeed a knocker-down. 1688R. Holme Armoury iii. 315/1 The Axe, which is the right form of the Butchers Knocker Down. 1697Praise Yorksh. Ale (Craven Gloss.), We've ale also that is called knocker-down. 1861E. Waugh Lake Country 223 (E.D.D.) That curious Lancashire character the ‘knocker-up’. 1875Knight Dict. Mech., Knocker-off. (Knitting.) A wheel with projections to raise the loop over the top of the needle and discharge it therefrom. 1884Pall Mall G. 14 Oct. 3/2 The stock in trade of the ‘knocker-up’ consists of a long pole..with pieces of wire at the end. This pole is raised to the bedroom, and the wires are rattled against the window pane. Knockers-up charge 2d. a week for this service. 1926E. Wallace Door with Seven Locks iii. 28 Tommy Cawler had been a notorious ‘knocker-off’ of motor-cars. 1952‘J. Henry’ Who lie in Gaol iv. 61 They are mostly house-breakers and petty thieves, or ‘knockers-off’ in prison parlance. |