brass knocker
1
4.0
- noun
- /bræs ˈnɑːkər/
:
aldaba de bronce
- At Steven's home, a large brick Federal on Front Street, Carl rapped the brass knocker, then scratched his nose and smoothed his small bald head with suddenly cold hands.
- brass knocker on the door
- heavy brass knocker
- big brass knocker
Examples
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A row of high, shuttered windows with an iron balcony looked down from the second story; the lower story was nothing but weathered brick, uninterrupted except for a single deeply set door with a heavy brass knocker and a tiny peephole.
Fiction book (1998) -
She raised the heavy brass knocker and rapped on the door.
Fiction book (1998) -
She slammed the door; the brass knocker clicked.
Fiction book (1993) -
She came down near the front door of Az-zie's mansion and banged hard with the big brass knocker.
Fiction book (1991) -
Sara lifted the stiff brass knocker on the front door and let it drop; the sound it made seemed tinny and insignificant, yet from inside they heard immediate footsteps, as though the landlady had been huddling by the door, awaiting their arrival.
Fiction book (2000) -
At the door, I slam the heavy brass knocker against the wood, but no one answers.
-
Mother stepped forward and grasped the tarnished brass knocker on the thick, weathered wood and gave it a few whacks.
-
Somebody banged on the big brass knocker bolted to the front door.
Synonyms
4
2.8
A metal object on a door that you lift to make a knocking sound
1
4.3
A metal object on a door that you lift or hit to show you are there
How Decorative
Surface Forms
Morphology
This is a straightforward material + object composition: 'brass' (the metal) + 'knocker' (a door fixture), so the meaning 'a door knocker made of brass' is directly derivable. The pattern is cross-linguistically common and follows normal noun-noun modification, making it immediately understandable to a B1 learner who knows both words.
Etymology
Brass knocker comes from the metal piece on a front door that people lift and hit to make a sound. Brass is a shiny, strong metal and a knocker is what you use to call someone at the door, so the phrase means 'a door knocker made of brass'.