knocker

knock +‎ -er

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• Rhymes: -ɒkə(ɹ)

knocker (plural knockers)

1. A device, usually hinged with a striking plate, used for knocking on a door.
   • 1897, Richard Marsh, The Beetle:

     Knockers in this part of the world seem intended for ornament only, — nobody seems to pay any attention to them when they’re used.

   • 2016 August 18, Ben Gallaty (lyrics and music), “Small Red Boy”, in The Bible 2, performed by AJJ:

     His tongue became a staircase, his uvula the knocker / Of an ornate wooden door that led me straight into my future

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. A critic; one who disparages.
   • 1947, Saul Bellow, The Victim:

     "I try to give everybody credit," declared the old man. "I am not a knocker. I am not too good for this world."

4. (informal, derogatory) A person who knocks (denigrates) something.
5. (slang, usually in the plural) A person's breast, especially if large.
6. (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.]
7. (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 […]

8. (dated, slang) A person who is strikingly handsome or otherwise admirable; a stunner.
9. A large cockroach, especially Blaberus giganteus, of semitropical America, which is able to produce a loud knocking sound.
10. (geology) A large, boulder-shaped outcrop of bedrock in an otherwise low-lying landscape, chiefly associated with a mélange.
11. (slang) One who defaults on payment of a wager.
    • 2004, Carl Chinn, Better Betting with a Decent Feller, page 48:

      To the consternation of those who believed that bookies were 'knockers' (defaulters), he paid his losses with alacrity […]

12. (slang, Eastern African-American Vernacular) A gun.
    • 2021 March 18, “Brotherly Love” (track 3, 1:01 from the start), in Dougie B (lyrics), The D.O.A. Tape‎:

      Lay down on that 'Tussin, I think I'ma snooze (Like, like what?)
      We keep knockers like this shit essential
      .22 long rifles, these bullets like pencils
      Homicide, bodies drop when we bend through

    • 2022 February 22, “Keep a Blixky” (track 10, 1:05 from the start), in The Blixky Tape 2 (Deluxe)‎:

      Last opper we caught had to pop 'em, shouldn't've left out his crib without knockers

    • 2022 October 31, “Doomsday” (track 7, 1:53 from the start), in Kay Flock (lyrics), F L O C K A‎:

      Dotty my holster, totin on this knocker (Grrah, grrah)
      If we see the'Ds, bitch, move proper

13. (slang, Eastern African-American Vernacular) An undercover policeman.
    • 2019 December 31, “Draco” (0:33 from the start), Chris Èlite (lyrics)‎:

      The knockers around better do what I say so

• (a person's breasts): See also Thesaurus:breasts