Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A person who buys worn-out or old livestock and slaughters them to sell the meat or hides.
- noun A person who buys discarded structures and dismantles them to sell the materials.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A man who dismantles and sells the materials of old houses, ships, etc.
- noun That which knacks or knocks; in the plural, two pieces of wood or bone used as a plaything by boys, who strike them together by moving the hand; castanets; bones.
- noun A maker of knacks, toys, or small work.
- noun A collar- and harness-maker, employed chiefly by farmers.
- noun Acolliers' horse.
- noun One whose occupation is the slaughtering of diseased or useless horses; also, one who deals in such horses, whether for use or slaughter.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun One who makes knickknacks, toys, etc.
- noun One of two or more pieces of bone or wood held loosely between the fingers, and struck together by moving the hand; -- called also
clapper . - noun Obs. or Prov. Eng. a harness maker.
- noun engraving One who slaughters worn-out horses and sells their flesh for dog's meat.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun One who makes
knickknacks ,toys , etc. - noun One of two or more pieces of
bone orwood held loosely between the fingers, and struck together by moving the hand; aclapper . - noun A
harness maker. - noun One who
slaughters and (especially)renders worn-outlivestock (especially horses) and sells their flesh, bones and hides. - noun One who dismantles old
ships , houses etc., and sells their components. - noun Ireland, UK, offensive A member of the
Travelling Community ; aGypsy . - noun Ireland, offensive, slang A person of lower social class; a
chav ,skanger orscobe . - verb To
tire out, becomeexhausted .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun someone who buys up old horses for slaughter
- noun someone who buys old buildings or ships and breaks them up to recover the materials in them
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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My solutions: Compulsory sterilisation of the criminal and feckless classes (using a three strikes and out policy for any offences other than motoring), no welfare BUT workfare for the fit and healthy (being a fat knacker is not an excuse as regular work and exercise will have a beneficial effect), combined with regular drug testing.
Easy Come, Easy Go! Geddit? « POLICE INSPECTOR BLOG Inspector Gadget 2009
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One defintion of a knacker is "a person who purchases or hauls away livestock carcasses for processing into tallow, hides, fertilizer, etc."
Green Tomato Finale Lindy 2005
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A 'knacker' is one who slaughters worn-out livestock and sells their flesh, bones and hides.
Irish Blogs 2009
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If you get get pissed and act like a knacker at a Wedding/Wake then you should be disciplined.
Sunday Post, Ruralshire, England. « POLICE INSPECTOR BLOG Inspector Gadget 2009
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I would dearly love to spend the time on the 20% of decent, honest, genuine victims but I really dont have the time due to having to trace knacker Ned to update him on how the investigation into his complaint of “theft of giro” is coming along.
How “Police Performance” Fraud Works. « POLICE INSPECTOR BLOG Inspector Gadget 2009
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• Good news, finally, for at last Britain along with the United States and France is to have an aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean – hooray for HMS Invincible: on her way to a knacker's yard in Turkey.
Hugh Muir's diary 2011
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He likes to knacker himself completely before a long flight.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb: the prophet of boom and doom « Isegoria 2008
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They know that if they mention the word ‘knife’, ‘threats’, ‘assault’ when they ring us to make the latest complaint against whichever knacker has incurred their displeasure, they will get a quicker response and it will have to be treated more seriously.
*NEW* The Self-Generated Reg.9 « POLICE INSPECTOR BLOG Inspector Gadget 2008
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Problem is that he has to get down with Karl Lagefeld though at least hes lost the lard-remember when he was a fat knacker??
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Five-hour meetings of Full Council knacker me, and do next-to-nothing for my residents.
Archive 2007-01-01 Stephen Tall 2007
yarb commented on the word knacker
Also a verb, informal, meaning "to bugger up" (often from over-use) or wear out. E.g. "I told Darren if he kept riding his scooter off the kerb like that, he'd knacker it. But did he listen, the little tyke?" Or "let's get take-away tonight dear, the kids have knackered me right out today."
November 8, 2007