Meaning of knackered | Babel Free

Definitions

1. Tired or exhausted.
   Commonwealth, Ireland, UK, offensive, slang, sometimes
2. muscular (having well-developed muscles)
3. Broken, inoperative.
   Ireland, South-Africa, UK, colloquial
4. drunk (inebriated)
5. knackered; tired; exhausted; shattered; sick; fed up
6. past participle of mamar

Equivalents

Examples

“I've got this job in a warehouse just now and it finishes quite early but I'm dead knackered at the end⟳ of the day so I don't know⟳ about going out and like⟳ studying every night.”

“2003, Hugh Dauncey, Geoff Hare (editors), The Tour de France, 1903-2003: A Century of Sporting Structures, Meanings and Values, Frank Cass Publishers, London, 2005, page 225, Then, it all just gets worse and worse, you don't sleep⟳ so much, so you don't recover⟳ as well from the day's racing, so you go into your reserves, you get⟳ more knackered, so you sleep⟳ less... It's simply a vicious circle.”

“So my joy at hearing his voice quickly turns to a paroxysm of anxiety as he manages by exhausted gesture and sound⟳ to let⟳ us know⟳ how knackered he feels, how desperate to get⟳ horizontal, almost from the first moment he lands in the chair.”

“In the course of this discussion, the (male) presenter, when uttering the word 'knackered', felt obliged to preface his animation of this word with “excuse⟳ my language”.”

“In the end⟳ though he had to admit⟳ that the car was knackered...”

“We take⟳ an old knackered machine out to China and say⟳, 'Copy⟳ that, brand new,' and they do.”

CEFR level