| 释义 |
▪ I. knacker, n.1|ˈnækə(r)|
Also (sense 3) nacker.
[f. knack v. + -er1.]
†1. One who sings in a lively manner. Obs.
c1380Wyclif Wks. (1880) 191 Ȝif þes knackeris excusen hem bi song in þe olde lawe.
2. Something that makes a sharp cracking noise; spec. a castanet. Now dial.
16..Middleton & Rowley Span. Gipsy iii. ii, Our knackers are the fifes and drums. Our knackers are the shot that fly. 1647R. Stapylton Juvenal 220 Castinetta's; knackers of the form of chesnuts, used to this day by the Spaniards in their dances. 1649W. Cavendish Varietie iii. 43 A Bachanalian dancing the Spanish Morisco, with knackers at his fingers. 1877N.W. Linc. Gloss., Knackers, flat pieces of wood with which children beat time.
3. pl. The testicles. slang.
1866T. Edmondston Etym. Gloss. Shetland & Orkney Dial. 76 Nackers, testes, S. 1877in E. Peacock Gloss. Words Manley & Corringham, Lincolnshire 150/2. 1889 Barrère & Leland Dict. Slang I. 523/2 Knackers... (Butchers, &c.), the testicles, also ‘knuckers’. 1922Joyce Ulysses 576 Eh, Harry, give him a kick in the knackers. 1940J. Cary Charley is my Darling xlv. 261 I'll murder the bastards... I'll take the knackers offen them. 1951Landfall Sept. 177 Sling your hook out of this dump before it gets you by the knackers. 1958M. Pugh Wilderness of Monkeys 79 Oh, smart boy, eh?.. Festival Hall fiddle! Nackers! 1969G. Greene Travels with my Aunt i. v. 42, I may regret him for a while tonight. His knackers were superb.
▪ II. † knacker, n.2 Obs.
[Cf. knack n.2 1.]
A trickster, deceiver.
c1380Wyclif Wks. (1880) 156 He þat..can helpe to anoie a pore man by knackis or chapitris..siche knackeris ben as proude of here veyn kunnynge as lucifer.
▪ III. knacker, n.3|ˈnækə(r)|
[Origin obscure. In sense 1, the knacker may orig. have made only the knacks or smaller articles belonging to harness, and hence have taken his name; but this is doubtful, as is also the connexion of sense 2.]
1. A harness-maker; a saddler. dial.
1573Tusser Husb. (1878) 137 Plowwrite, cartwrite, knacker and smith. 1622F. Markham Bk. War iii. iv. §6. 96 Men of these trades, as Codders, or Knackers, Cartwrights, Smiths, and the like. 1691Ray S. & E. Country Words 104 A Knacker, One that makes Collars and other Furniture for Cart-horses. Mod. Northampton Dial., You must take this collar to the knacker's to be altered, it wrings the horse's shoulders so much. [Ainsworth Lat. Dict. (1736) has ‘A Knacker, Restio’. (Restio is a ropemaker.) Johnson (1755) has Knacker ‘1. A maker of small work’ (quoting 1573 above). ‘2. A rope-maker’ (quoting Ainsworth). Craig 1847 has ‘A maker of knacks, toys, or small work; a rope-maker; a collar-maker’. All these dictionary-explanations or misunderstandings seem to arise out of the sense ‘harness-maker’.] 2. a. One whose trade it is to buy worn out, diseased, or useless horses, and slaughter them for their hides and hoofs, and for making dog's-meat, etc.; a horse-slaughterer. knacker's yard: Also transf. and fig.
1812Sporting Mag. XXXIX. 209 He was a knacker [note, A purchaser of worn-up horses]. 1824Monthly Mag. LVII. 109 The nackers' and catgut-makers' yards. 1875Helps Soc. Press. ii. 9 Four or five hundred horses are carried to the knacker's yard each week in London. 1961F. H. Burgess Dict. Sailing 128 Knacker's yard, the shipbreaker's yard. 1966‘L. Lane’ ABZ of Scouse 59 Knacker's yard: said of a place that looks a complete mess. 1967T. Gunn Touch 42 The graveyard is the sea... They have all come who sought distinction hard To this universal knacker's yard.
b. One who buys old houses, ships, etc., for the sake of their materials, or what can be made of them.
1890Times 23 Aug. 4/6 Worm-eaten hulks..sent by ship knackers to find freight or a grave in the North Atlantic. 1899Daily News 2 Feb. 3/1 The old house knacker was bad enough,..but he was innocence itself, compared with the new house knacker that has risen up. Ibid. 12 June 8/4 Lovers of old London have been grieved by the news that No. 47, Leicester-square..where the painter [Reynolds] lived and worked..was to be made over to the house⁓knackers.
3. transf. An old worn-out horse. dial.
1864Mayhew German Life I. 127 Such spavined knackers. 1867Ouida Under Two Flags (1890) 122 The famous English horse was dead beat as any used-up knacker.
▪ IV. knacker, v. slang.|ˈnækə(r)|
[f. knacker n.3 2 or knacker n.1 3.]
trans. To kill; to castrate; usu. in weakened sense, to exhaust, to wear out. So as an imprecation. Freq. as pa. pple. or ppl. a.
1886H. Baumann Londinismen 90/2 Knacker, umbringen; he's knackered, er ist abgemurkst worden. 1936B. Penton Inheritors ix. 72 Coons is cheap. They'd knacker us white bushmen if they got the chance and let them Chows and Jimmy Tannas breed like rabbits. 1946Penguin New Writing XXVII. 79 His eyes narrowed but he knew I had him knackered. 1959M. Pugh Chancer vi. 86 ‘Wasn't it Major Fleming with the Bren-gun?’ ‘Major Fleming be knackered. It was Ramsay.’ 1963New Society 22 Aug. 5/1 Other adoptions are ‘get knotted’ and ‘knackered’ which have come to mean innocently enough, ‘go to hell’, and ‘kaput’. 1971B. W. Aldiss Soldier Erect 258 Gor-Blimey came up, panting like a dog. ‘I'm knackered,’ he said. Blood was streaming down his face from a cut on his temple. 1971Times 21 May 8/7, I kept thinking I should whip up the pace and then I'd think ‘I'm knackered, I'll leave it for another lap.’ 1973C. Bonington Next Horizon xxi. 283 We've been above Base Camp for twenty-eight days. If we had to go back to carrying now we'd have to go all the way back down for a rest. We're just too knackered to carry. 1975Sunday Times (Colour Suppl.) 23 Feb. 25/2 Oot a' mornin' daein' thae miracles. I'm knackered! Gie's a glass o' that wine. Nae kiddin' son, I'm knackered. |