knock up

British
as in to wake
to cause to stop sleeping I asked the clerk at the hotel to knock me up at 7:00 a.m.

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of knock up Meanwhile, while Miranda busies herself with building a pageant empire, her husband Ray, a pill-popping nurse, has knocked up the 18-year-old granddaughter of one of his hospice patients. Ethan Shanfeld, Variety, 28 Aug. 2025 Julia, worried, maintains that she’s not knocked up. Kimberly Roots, TVLine, 15 Aug. 2025 With 200 hp worth of empty space to play with before knocking up against the 600-hp V12 Verado, Mercury is dialing up the overall output of the V10 range by adding a new 425-hp variant as the flagship of the family. New Atlas, 12 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for knock up
Verb
  • The boy jerks his head as if to wake himself, turns around abruptly and looks the other way, even though there’s nothing special to see besides darkness and emptiness, which is where a living eye should never look.
    Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 10 Nov. 2025
  • What begins as a ritual to have their deepest wishes granted soon twists into a waking nightmare of survival and betrayal.
    Melanie Goodfellow, Deadline, 10 Nov. 2025
Verb
  • Rice awakened the Immortals (including Cleopatra) in the early 1900s.
    Jordan Hoffman, Entertainment Weekly, 9 Nov. 2025
  • Your inner prankster awakens during Mercury retrograde.
    USA TODAY, USA Today, 9 Nov. 2025
Verb
  • But during her absence, Tankie awoke from his dormant slumber.
    Liz O'Connell, MSNBC Newsweek, 4 Nov. 2025
  • Sagua de Tánamo, a town in Holguín province, awoke to flooding of the Sagua River.
    Nora Gámez Torres, Miami Herald, 29 Oct. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Knock up.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/knock%20up. Accessed 13 Nov. 2025.

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