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Definition of 'To knock up'

From: GCIDE

Knock \Knock\ (n[o^]k), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Knocked (n[o^]kt); p. pr. & vb. n. Knocking.] [OE. knoken, AS. cnocian, cnucian; prob. of imitative origin; cf. Sw. knacka. Cf. Knack.]
1. To drive or be driven against something; to strike against something; to clash; as, one heavy body knocks against another. --Bacon. [1913 Webster]
2. To strike or beat with something hard or heavy; to rap; as, to knock with a club; to knock on the door. [1913 Webster]
For harbor at a thousand doors they knocked. --Dryden. [1913 Webster]
Seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. --Matt. vii. 7. [1913 Webster]
3. To practice evil speaking or fault-finding; to criticize habitually or captiously. [Slang, U. S.] [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
To knock about, to go about, taking knocks or rough usage; to wander about; to saunter. [Colloq.] "Knocking about town." --W. Irving.
To knock up, to fail of strength; to become wearied or worn out, as with labor; to give out. "The horses were beginning to knock up under the fatigue of such severe service." --De Quincey.
To knock off, to cease, as from work; to desist.
To knock under, to yield; to submit; to acknowledge one's self conquered; -- an expression probably borrowed from the practice of knocking under the table with the knuckles, when conquered. "Colonel Esmond knocked under to his fate." --Thackeray. [1913 Webster]

From: GCIDE

Knock \Knock\ (n[o^]k), v. t.
1. To strike with something hard or heavy; to move by striking; to drive (a thing) against something; as, to knock a ball with a bat; to knock the head against a post; to knock a lamp off the table. [1913 Webster]
When heroes knock their knotty heads together. --Rowe. [1913 Webster]
2. To strike for admittance; to rap upon, as a door. [1913 Webster]
Master, knock the door hard. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
3. To impress strongly or forcibly; to astonish; to move to admiration or applause. [Slang, Eng.] [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
4. To criticise; to find fault with; to disparage. "Don't knock it if you haven't tried it." [PJC]
To knock in the head, or To knock on the head, to stun or kill by a blow upon the head; hence, to put am end to; to defeat, as a scheme or project; to frustrate; to quash. [Colloq.] -- To knock off. (a) To force off by a blow or by beating. (b) To assign to a bidder at an auction, by a blow on the counter. (c) To leave off (work, etc.). [Colloq.] -- {To knock out}, to force out by a blow or by blows; as, to knock out the brains.
To knock up. (a) To arouse by knocking. (b) To beat or tire out; to fatigue till unable to do more; as, the men were entirely knocked up. [Colloq.] "The day being exceedingly hot, the want of food had knocked up my followers." --Petherick. (c) (Bookbinding) To make even at the edges, or to shape into book form, as printed sheets. (d) To make pregnant. Often used in passive, "she got knocked up". [vulgar]