to knock up
35
9.9
- phrasal verb
- /nɑk ʌp/
- NSFW
:
dejar embarazada
- He was surprised when he found out he had knocked up his girlfriend during their last vacation.
- get knocked up
- a girl was knocked up
- knock up a girlfriend
Well, Chrysanthemum or one of her kids gets knocked up during the campaign, right?
- Well, Chrysanthemum or one of her kids gets knocked up during the campaign, right?
- So Long story short, her mom was a ho, got knocked up in a backyard in Queens.
- You all dumb, sick and knocked up?
- We don't know why we've been, you know, we've been trying to, I've been trying to fucking knock you up for like how long?
- So next minute she's pregnant, knocked up by a soldier, good looking soldier who's my dad.
- I mean his daddy was white and his, they pretended his mom was, his mom was well, his daddy knocked up the woman that swept out the school bus.
- And so I felt like I had to explain myself and clearly I was in a place where I just got clearly had knocked up.
Examples
-
I never did believe that story about you being knocked up anyway.
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She's knocked up.
-
Her and that dude ended up getting knocked up while she was still in high school.
-
Who knocked up your sister?
-
I had let myself, as my mother would say, get "knocked up and abandoned."
Academic text (2001) -
For she was rough and ready, and nothing surprised her more than getting knocked up with a baby.
Fiction book (1995) -
"Girls are always going to get knocked up," Angie said.
Fiction book (1993) -
You're the bastard who knocked me up and left me.
-
Who knew we'd be able to capitalize on me getting knocked up?
-
Sylvia says don't spread it around, but two of the nine cancan girls are knocked up.
Fiction book (1992)
Synonyms
32
7.2
To make a woman, female animal, or an egg start to grow a baby
15
9.9
To make someone pregnant, said informally
Make someone pregnant, usually by accident
Surface Forms
Morphology
knock + up
The meaning 'to make or prepare something quickly' is only partially derivable: the particle 'up' often signals completion/production and 'knock' can imply a quick action, but the precise sense of improvisational quick preparation is idiomatic and not directly predictable from the constituents. Additionally, the strong alternative meaning (particularly in American English) 'to impregnate' creates ambiguity for learners, reducing overall transparency.
Etymology
Knock up may come from old slang where knock meant a quick sexual act and up showed it was finished, giving a sharp image of an action that can lead to a baby. That's why the phrase means 'to make a woman pregnant'.