KNOCKER

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does knocker mean? 

• KNOCKER (noun)
  The noun KNOCKER has 5 senses:

1. (Yiddish) a big shot who knows it and acts that way; a boastful immoderate person

2. a person who knocks (as seeking to gain admittance)

3. one who disparages or belittles the worth of something

4. either of two soft fleshy milk-secreting glandular organs on the chest of a woman

5. a device (usually metal and ornamental) attached by a hinge to a door

  Familiarity information: KNOCKER used as a noun is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• KNOCKER (noun)

Sense 1

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)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A person who knocks (as seeking to gain admittance)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Context example:

open the door and see who the knocker is

Hypernyms ("knocker" is a kind of...):

individual; mortal; person; somebody; someone; soul (a human being)

Derivation:

knock (rap with the knuckles)

Sense 3

Meaning:

One who disparages or belittles the worth of something

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

depreciator; detractor; disparager; knocker

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:

Either of two soft fleshy milk-secreting glandular organs on the chest of a woman

Classified under:

Nouns denoting body parts

Synonyms:

boob; bosom; breast; knocker; tit; titty

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 5

Meaning:

A device (usually metal and ornamental) attached by a hinge to a door

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

doorknocker; knocker; rapper

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)

 Context examples 

Twelve o’clock had scarce rung out over London, ere the knocker sounded very gently on the door.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

There was a knocker upon the door, but it was not that which made the sound.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

We heard a shuffling sound outside, and then two sharp taps with the knocker.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

What business had I to approach the white door or touch the glittering knocker?

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

My companion ordered him to wait, and had his hand upon the knocker, when the door opened and a grave young gentleman in black, with a very shiny hat, appeared on the step.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Of bell or knocker there was no sign; through these frowning walls and dark window openings it was not likely that my voice could penetrate.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

So urgent a message had not been issued within the memory of old lay-brother Athanasius, who had cleaned the Abbey knocker since the year after the Battle of Bannockburn.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

My thoughts were back in Sussex, and I was dreaming of the kindly, simple ways of the country, when there came a rat-tat at the knocker, the ring of a hearty voice, and there, in the doorway, was the smiling, weather-beaten face, with the puckered eyelids and the light blue eyes.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The door, which was equipped with neither bell nor knocker, was blistered and distained.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

He hammered loudly at the knocker and pulled at the bell, but without any success.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)