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
-
What happens in the first minutes after waking can either reinforce those patterns or interrupt them.—
Dana Santas,
CNN Money,
30 Jan. 2026
-
That one near the end of the half woke Hall up.—
Cedric Golden,
Austin American Statesman,
30 Jan. 2026
Verb
-
Dormant cancer cells awakening.—
Stephanie Armour,
CBS News,
27 Jan. 2026
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Many communities across the Midwest, South, and Northeast awakened Monday to subzero weather.—
Charlotte Kramon,
Chicago Tribune,
26 Jan. 2026
Verb
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The lightweight fabric is also quiet, so you won’t be awoken from crinkling material.—
Rylee Johnston,
PEOPLE,
9 Jan. 2026
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The most famous, perhaps, was of lung cancer patient David Prueitt, who swallowed a supposedly lethal dose of medication and awoke three days later.—
Teri Sforza,
Oc Register,
9 Jan. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Knock up.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/knock%20up. Accessed 1 Feb. 2026.
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