knocker

English

Etymology

knock + -er

Pronunciation

  • (file)
  • Rhymes: -ɒkə(r)

Noun

knocker (plural knockers)

  1. A device, usually hinged with a striking plate, used for knocking on a door.
  2. A person who knocks.
    • 1963, Patrick Anderson, The Character Ball: Chapters of Autobiography (page 220)
      He was a loud knocker. Despite my usual timidity, after a bit I opened the door.
  3. (informal, derogatory) A person who knocks (denigrates) something.
  4. (slang, usually in the plural) A woman's breasts.
  5. (especially Cardigan, in South Wales, archaic) A dwarf, goblin, or sprite imagined to dwell in mines and to indicate the presence of ore by knocking. [18th to 19th c.]
  6. (pinball) A mechanical device in a pinball table that produces a loud percussive noise.
    • 1963, Harper's magazine (volume 226)
      A good game needs color, lights, bells, gongs, and knockers, all to assure the player he is making progress []
  7. (dated, slang) A person who is strikingly handsome or otherwise admirable; a stunner.
  8. A large cockroach, especially Blaberus giganteus, of semitropical America, which is able to produce a loud knocking sound.
  9. (geology) A large, boulder-shaped outcrop of bedrock in an otherwise low-lying landscape, chiefly associated with a mélange.

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