knock someone up (UK)—(coll.)
1. wake a person (by knocking on the door of his room):
- Sorry to knock you up at this hour, Holmes, but Mrs. Hudson has only just knocked me.
2. tire a person very much (through overwork, etc.):
- Marianne went there to nurse him and was several nights without sleep, which quite knocked her up.
knock someone up (U.S.)—(coarse sl.) make a woman pregnant:
- And what would you tell the child when they ask who their father was? “Oh, just some guy I let knock me up at a party?”