knackered

«knackered» in Mova's school dictionary: extremely tired, worn out — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

adjective (knackered — slang, UK, Ireland, Australia, NZ); verb form (past of knacker)

meaning for a pupil

1) (slang, UK) Knackered means extremely tired, worn out. tree →

2) (slang, UK) Knackered means broken or too old and worn to work properly. tree →

sense in the lessons

Very common in casual British, Irish, Australian and NZ speech, like «shattered» or «exhausted». In stories with real dialogue it shows a tired character or a broken thing. In exam writing it is too informal. Phrases: absolutely knackered, completely knackered, I'm knackered.

examples

• (slang) I'm knackered after that cross-country run. tree →
• (slang) Mum was knackered after her night shift. tree →
• (slang) My bike is knackered — the chain keeps falling off. tree →
• We were all knackered by the end of the camping trip. tree →
• (slang) This old phone is completely knackered. tree →
• «You look knackered,» said Gran. «Go to bed.» tree →

note

Informal slang, mildly rude to some older people, but common and not a swear word. Not usual in American English (Americans say «beat», «wiped out» or «exhausted»). Formal equivalents: exhausted, worn out, broken.

In the corpora

• This clock's knackered!" ("knackered" means broken or worn out).

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «knackered» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.