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.
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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
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
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In the middle of the night, her son is woken by a sound coming from somewhere in the house.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
22 Sep. 2025
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The morning after their arrival, Esther wakes to find Tomás missing—and a stranger at the door.—
Melanie Goodfellow,
Deadline,
18 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Cases are flooding the courts, with hearings in DC’s local criminal court routinely lasting late into the night and federal prosecutors awakened for new cases.—
Danya Gainor,
CNN Money,
28 Sep. 2025
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Elizabeth feels her senses awakening again.—
Lizz Schumer,
PEOPLE,
26 Sep. 2025
Verb
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After a lifeless Eagles offense awoke with a third-quarter touchdown to pull within 26-14, Davis forced Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford out of bounds on a punt-forcing sack by chasing him halfway across the field.—
Brooks Kubena,
New York Times,
22 Sep. 2025
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Residents awoke to an atmospheric anomaly — fueled by meteorological conditions trapping smoke from Northern California wildfires — in which the sky did indeed turn a smoky orange.—
Randy McMullen,
Mercury News,
18 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Knock up.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/knock%20up. Accessed 30 Sep. 2025.
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