Crossword clues for knocker
knocker
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
knocker \knock"er\, n.
-
One who, or that which, knocks; specifically, an instrument, or kind of hammer, fastened to a door, to be used in seeking for admittance.
Shut, shut the door, good John ! fatigued, I said; Tie up the knocker; say I'm sick, I'm dead.
--Pope. A person strikingly handsome, beautiful, or fine; one who wins admiration; a ``stunner.'' [Slang.]
A species of large cockroach, especially Blabera gigantea, of semitropical America, which is able to produce a loud knocking sound.
[usually used in pl.] a woman's breast. [vulgar]
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
late 14c., agent noun from knock. Sense of "door banger" is by 1590s. Knockers "a woman's breasts" is slang attested from 1941.
Wiktionary
n. 1 A device, usually hinged with a striking plate, used for knocking on a door. 2 A person who knocks (denigrates) something. 3 (context slang English) (context usually in plural English) A woman's breasts. 4 A dwarf, goblin, or sprite imagined to dwell in mine and to indicate the presence of ore by knocking ''particularly in Cardigan etc. in South Wales (18th..19th century)''. 5 (context pinball English) A mechanical device in a pinball table that produces a loud percussive noise. 6 (cx dated slang English) A person who is strikingly handsome or otherwise admirable; a stunner. 7 A large cockroach, especially ''Blabera gigantea'', of semitropical America, which is able to produce a loud knocking sound.
WordNet
n. (Yiddish) a big shot who knows it and acts that way; a boastful immoderate person
a person who knocks (as seeking to gain admittance); "open the door and see who the knocker is"
one who disparages or belittles the worth of something [syn: detractor, disparager, depreciator]
either of two soft fleshy milk-secreting glandular organs on the chest of a woman [syn: breast, bosom, boob, tit, titty]
a device (usually metal and ornamental) attached by a hinge to a door [syn: doorknocker, rapper]
Wikipedia
Knocker and knockers may refer to:
- Knocker (folklore), mythical creature in Welsh and Cornish folklore
- Knocker (radio series)
People:
- Elsie Knocker (1884–1978), British nurse and ambulance driver in World War I who won numerous medals for bravery
- Knocker Norton or Steve Norton, English former rugby league footballer
- nickname of Enoch West (1886–1965), English footballer
Items that knock:
- Door knocker, item of door furniture that allows people outside to alert those inside
- Knocker-up, profession in England and Ireland before alarm clocks were affordable or reliable
- Port knocker, to externally open ports on a firewall
- Sanctuary Knocker, ornamental knocker on the door of a cathedral
Other knockers:
- Popper knockers or Clackers, a toy popular around 1970
- Saggarmaker's bottom knocker, manufacturer of saggars (boxlike containers used in firing pottery) in the UK
- Staple knocker, tool resembling a screwdriver for removing staples and shredded material
- Swish knocker or Swish cymbal
- Breasts (colloq.)
Knocker is a British radio situation comedy broadcast on digital radio station BBC 7, recorded before a live audience. It is written by and stars Neil Edmond as Ian Dunn, a long suffering market researcher. The series also co-stars Paula Wilcox as Ian's boss, Mary. The programme, produced by Tilusha Ghelani, was first broadcast between 19 November and 24 December 2007.
The Knocker, Knacker, Bwca ( Welsh), Bucca ( Cornish) or Tommyknocker (US) is a mythical creature in Welsh, Cornish and Devon folklore. They are the equivalent of Irish leprechauns and English and Scottish brownies. About two feet tall and grizzled, but not misshapen, they live beneath the ground. Here they wear tiny versions of standard miner's garb and commit random mischief, such as stealing miners' unattended tools and food.
Their name comes from the knocking on the mine walls that happens just before cave-ins – actually the creaking of earth and timbers before giving way. To some of the miners, the knockers were malevolent spirits and the knocking was the sound of them hammering at walls and supports to cause the cave-in. To others, who saw them as essentially well-meaning practical jokers, the knocking was their way of warning the miners that a life-threatening collapse was imminent.
According to some Cornish folklore, the Knockers were the helpful spirits of people who had died in previous accidents in the many tin mines in the county, warning the miners of impending danger. To give thanks for the warnings, and to avoid future peril, the miners cast the last bite of their tasty pasties into the mines for the Knockers.
In the 1820s, immigrant Welsh miners brought tales of the knockers and their theft of unwatched items and warning knocks to western Pennsylvania, when they gravitated there to work in the mines. Cornish miners, much sought after in the years following the gold and silver rushes, brought them to California and Nevada. When asked if they had relatives who would come to work the mines, the Cornish miners always said something along the lines of "Well, me cousin Jack over in Cornwall wouldst come, could ye pay ’is boat ride", and so came to be called Cousin Jacks. The Cousin Jacks, as notorious for losing tools as they were for diving out of shafts just before they collapsed, attributed this to their diminutive friends and refused to enter new mines until assured by the management that the knockers were already on duty. Even non-Cornish miners, who worked deep in the earth where the noisy support timbers creaked and groaned, came to believe in the Tommyknockers. The American interpretation of knockers seemed to be more ghostly than elvish.
Belief in the knockers in America remained well into the 20th century. When one large mine closed in 1956 and the owners sealed the entrance, fourth, fifth, and sixth generation Cousin Jacks circulated a petition calling on the mineowners to set the knockers free so that they could move on to other mines. The owners complied. Belief in Nevada persisted amongst its miners as late as the 1930s.
Knocker also appeared as a name for the same phenomena, in the folklore of Staffordshire miners.
Tommyknockers are also a motif found in a science fiction/horror book by Stephen King. Tommyknockers are also mentioned in the Hardy Boys book, 'Hunting for Hidden Gold'. 'Tommy-knockers' is the title of chapter eight.
Usage examples of "knocker".
Jim escorted him to the house and watched with admiration as Cec walked straight up to the front door and banged the knocker, loud.
Knocker and Adolf, Chalotte, Bingo and Torreycanyon were taken out by Dewdrop and driven in the cart almost halfway up the hill beyond Southfields.
I threw in a great deal of traditional fantasy literature, a great deal of elves and dunters and knockers and green men and such but I put it into the 20th century.
He went to bed a little after midnight, and was awakened from lurid dreams in the small hours of Monday by the sound of door knockers, feet running in the street, distant drumming, and a clamour of bells.
From the tiny, prankish piskies who were no taller than a mouse, to the nasty spriggans with large heads, the knockers who worked underground, the gentle small people who lived in faery gardens with perfume, and finally to the good people who helped his ancestors build Kindred.
Knocker removed their hats and Knocker tore each name separately from the sheet that Spiff had given him.
Knocker shuffled his feet and wished Spiff would stop making a speech and let everyone go.
With a nod for Spiff and a nervous smile for Knocker they left the room one by one.
As he changed in great haste Spiff talked to him, for he had much to say before Knocker left.
School, and they came up to Trott Street and the empty building where Spiff lived and where Knocker had lived as chief Battersea lookout all that time ago.
She watched Yonnie lift the brass knocker on the heavy oak door that had tasteful panels of leaded, beveled glass, and announce his arrival by dropping it once, and then waiting for the door to eerily creak open on its own.
Wet to the skin, bedrabbled with mud, exhausted with breasting the gale, we stood for a moment under the porch to regain our breath, then with her characteristic energy she lifted the knocker and struck a smart blow on the door.
The new knocker and letter-box gleamed brassily, there was the same dull light behind the button of the chimes.
At the clang of his bayonet against the brass trimmings, Martha Moulton groaned in spirit, for, if there was any one thing that she deemed essential to her comfort in this life, it was to keep spotless, speckless and in every way unharmed, the great knocker on her front door.
Perhaps, thought Knocker, Stonks had done for these Rumbles they saw about them, and then this powerful creature had taken him from behind as he fought in the tunnel.