Knackered

//ˈnæk.ɚd// adj, verb, slang

adj, verb, slang ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    simple past and past participle of knacker form-of, participle, past
Adjective
  1. 1
    Tired or exhausted. Commonwealth, Ireland, UK, offensive, slang, sometimes

    "I've got this job in a warehouse just now and it finishes quite early but I'm dead knackered at the end of the day so I don't know about going out and like studying every night."

  2. 2
    Broken, inoperative. Ireland, South-Africa, UK, colloquial

    "In the end though he had to admit that the car was knackered..."

Adjective
  1. 1
    extremely exhausted wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
stuffedbadbleareyedblearybleary-eyedbone-tired

Example

More examples

"That is, total exhaustion. Body and soul completely knackered."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From the verb knacker.

Etymology 2

From "ready for the knacker's yard" or "fit to be knackered", meaning "worn-out livestock, fit to be slaughtered and rendered".

Related phrases

Kerry Packeredcream crackeredknacker's yard

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.