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HUBLOT Posted 14 years ago
Grammar

Knock (someone) up

http://www.learnersdictionary.com/search/knock
knock (someone) up or knock up (someone) informal
a chiefly US, impolite: to make (someone) pregnant
? She got knocked up. [=she got pregnant]
b Brit: to wake (someone) by knocking on a door
? knocked him up at 6 a.m.

Does no British English speaker use the phrase "knock someone up" to mean "make someone pregnant"?
  

Top answer

Highly unlikely that it is so absolute, but I have not spoken to all of the BrE speakers yet. Surely some of them are already punning with it, however: they aren't that dour.

— Mister Micawber

  • Highly unlikely that it is so absolute, but I have not spoken to all of the BrE speakers yet.
  • Surely some of them are already punning with it, however: they aren't that dour.
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4 Answers
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Highly unlikely that it is so absolute, but I have not spoken to all of the BrE speakers yet. Surely some of them are already punning with it, however: they aren't that dour.
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I (a Brit) remember discovering the American meaning of the expression in about 1964, when I heard Boby Dylan's "All I really want to do". I had been puzzleded about why Bob Dylan should not want to knock his girlfriend up, until a friend explained that it was nothing to do with banging on her door.
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fivejedjon it was nothing to do with banging on her door.
Hmm. I think I see the connection...
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Emotion: smile Thank you, Mister Micawber and fivejedjon.
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