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KNOCKER
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A device (usually metal and ornamental) attached by a hinge to a door
Synonyms:
doorknocker; knocker; rapper
Classified under:
Nouns denoting man-made objects
Hypernyms ("knocker" is a kind of...):
device (an instrumentality invented for a particular purpose)
Holonyms ("knocker" is a part of...):
front door; front entrance (exterior door (at the entrance) at the front of a building)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Either of two soft fleshy milk-secreting glandular organs on the chest of a woman
Synonyms:
boob; bosom; breast; knocker; tit; titty
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("knocker" is a kind of...):
mamma; mammary gland (milk-secreting organ of female mammals)
Meronyms (parts of "knocker"):
lactiferous duct (ducts of the mammary gland that carry milk to the nipple)
areola; ring of color (small circular area such as that around the human nipple or an inflamed area around a pimple or insect bite)
Holonyms ("knocker" is a part of...):
adult female body; woman's body (the body of an adult woman)
Sense 3
Meaning:
One who disparages or belittles the worth of something
Synonyms:
depreciator; detractor; disparager; knocker
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("knocker" is a kind of...):
cynic; faultfinder (someone who is critical of the motives of others)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "knocker"):
backbiter; defamer; libeler; maligner; slanderer; traducer; vilifier (one who attacks the reputation of another by slander or libel)
hatemonger (one who arouses hatred for others)
muckraker; mudslinger (one who spreads real or alleged scandal about another (usually for political advantage))
Sense 4
Meaning:
A person who knocks (as seeking to gain admittance)
Example:
open the door and see who the knocker is
Classified under:
Nouns denoting people
Hypernyms ("knocker" is a kind of...):
individual; mortal; person; somebody; someone; soul (a human being)
Derivation:
knock (rap with the knuckles)
Sense 5
Meaning:
(Yiddish) a big shot who knows it and acts that way; a boastful immoderate person
Classified under:
Nouns denoting people
Hypernyms ("knocker" is a kind of...):
big cheese; big deal; big enchilada; big fish; big gun; big shot; big wheel; head honcho (an important influential person)
Domain category:
Yiddish (a dialect of High German including some Hebrew and other words; spoken in Europe as a vernacular by many Jews; written in the Hebrew script)
Context examples:
The old-fashioned brass knocker on the low arched door, ornamented with carved garlands of fruit and flowers, twinkled like a star; the two stone steps descending to the door were as white as if they had been covered with fair linen; and all the angles and corners, and carvings and mouldings, and quaint little panes of glass, and quainter little windows, though as old as the hills, were as pure as any snow that ever fell upon the hills.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
Where, for the first time in many revolving years, the overwhelming pressure of pecuniary liabilities was not proclaimed, from day to day, by importune voices declining to vacate the passage; where there was no knocker on the door for any creditor to appeal to; where personal service of process was not required, and detainees were merely lodged at the gate!
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
