Knocker-upper
noun, slang
noun, slang ·Uncommon ·College level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 Alternative form of knocker-up (person who knocks to awaken in the morning). alt-of, alternative
- 2 .
- 3 The male who has sired a pregnancy. humorous, informal
"What, Shelley is pregnant?! Who's the knocker-upper? [ = Who's the father?]"
Example
More examples"What, Shelley is pregnant?! Who's the knocker-upper? [ = Who's the father?]"
Etymology
By a regular pattern for (informal) nouns seen also in similar forms, such as fixer-upper and cleaner-upper; the sire sense involves an extra degree of wordplay, as an alternative surface analysis of knock (h)er up + -er is playfully apparent (who knocked 'er up?).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.