Crossword clues for knacker
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Knacker \Knack"er\, n.
One who makes knickknacks, toys, etc.
--Mortimer.One of two or more pieces of bone or wood held loosely between the fingers, and struck together by moving the hand; -- called also clapper.
--Halliwell.
Knacker \Knack"er\, n. [Cf. Icel. hnakkr a saddle.]
a harness maker. [Obs. or Prov. Eng.]
--Halliwell.One who slaughters worn-out horses and sells their flesh for dog's meat. [Eng.]
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
usually in past tense, knackered, "to kill, castrate" (1855), but most often used in weakened sense of "to tire out" (1883); apparently from knacker (n.) "worn-out or useless horse," 1812, of unknown origin; possibly from a dialectal survival of a Scandinavian word represented by Old Norse hnakkur "saddle," hnakki "back of the neck," and thus possibly related to neck (n.).
Wiktionary
n. 1 One who makes knickknacks, toys, etc. 2 One of two or more pieces of bone or wood held loosely between the fingers, and struck together by moving the hand; a clapper. 3 A harness maker. 4 One who slaughters and (especially) renders worn-out livestock (especially horses) and sells their flesh, bones and hides. 5 One who dismantles old ships, houses etc., and sells their components. 6 (context Ireland British offensive English) A member of the Travelling Community; a Gypsy. 7 (context Ireland offensive slang English) A person of lower social class; a chav, skanger or scobe. vb. To tire out, become exhausted.
WordNet
n. someone who buys old buildings or ships and breaks them up to recover the materials in them
someone who buys up old horses for slaughter
Wikipedia
A knacker is a person in the trade of rendering animals that have died on farms or are unfit for human consumption, such as horses that can no longer work. This leads to the slang expression "knackered" meaning very tired, or "ready for the knacker's yard", where old horses are slaughtered and the by-products are sent for rendering. A knacker's yard or knackery is different from a slaughterhouse, where animals are slaughtered for human consumption. In most countries, knackery premises are regulated by law.
A horse carcass, rendered, had many uses. In the U.S., the meat could be used as food at a mink ranch, pig farm, fox farm, or greyhound race track, in pet food, or in zoos. Bones were ground up for bone meal fertilizer. Hides were made into leather or, along with joints and hooves, processed to make glue for the furniture and book binding trades (hence the idea of old horses being sent to the glue factory).
In modern usage, especially in Ireland, the word has come to describe both those from lower-class backgrounds who tend to engage in anti-social behaviour, as well as those of an Irish Traveller background. In this sense, the usage of the word "knacker" is akin to the usage of the term " chav" in England and ned in Scotland. The variant term of 'Bulls Knacker' is prevalent in Newcastle upon Tyne, meaning someone who deliberately misbehaves.
The word "knacker" was first used in 1812. It is from the Scandinavian word represented by O.N. hnakkur saddle and hnakki "back of the neck".
Knacker was a Canadian indie rock band formed in 1998 from Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Usage examples of "knacker".
Only templars can leave corpses at the boneyard without paying the knacker at the gate.
Pavek said, fighting to keep the desperation from his voice as Sassel started walking again, carrying him toward the boneyard, which was, in fact, a very good place to lose a corpse, and where the knacker accepted all donations, no questions asked or coins required.
He thought about the time that a narc who looked like a knacker and smelled like a knacker put the hand on Ginger.
Of course I had no intention of providing Colonel Knacker with a supply of pills, assuming I was successful in developing an oral form of the sex hormone.
It was a Beauceron mare, old and thin, and one fit for the knacker, which was dragging a very heavy cart.
Sitting in the Square du Temple, musing over the doings of the horse knackers led by Jean Caboche, I have thought long and ruefully over the sad fate of Charles the Silly.
I wish I may drop down dead at my work, and not be sent off to the knackers.
Well, I mean, at that point Indian Silk was worth just what the knackers would pay for his carcass, which wasn’t much, and this man was offering nearly twice that.
But the man said he knew Indian Silk couldn’t race anymore but he’d like to give him a good home in a nice field for as long as necessary, and it meant that Dad didn’t have the expense of any more vets’ bills and he and Mum didn’t have to watch Indian Silk just getting worse and worse, and Mum wouldn’t have to think of him going to the knackers for dog meat, so they let him go.
Well, I mean, at that point Indian Silk was worth just what the knackers would pay for his carcass, which wasn't much, and this man was offering nearly twice that.
But the man said he knew Indian Silk couldn't race anymore but he'd like to give him a good home in a nice field for as long as necessary, and it meant that Dad didn't have the expense of any more vets' bills and he and Mum didn't have to watch Indian Silk just getting worse and worse, and Mum wouldn't have to think of him going to the knackers for dog meat, so they let him go.
I told Tigwood to take the last two to the knackers to put them out of their misery.
He gloomily watched the knackers position their van by my garden gate and winch the thin old corpse away.
On busy days, the knackers dropped ten, twelve horses down there, and none of them ever came back up.
And that night when you kept fighting and fighting, butting old Duff in the teeth and kneeing me in the knackers, I felt something—"