A.Word.A.Day --knacker

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knacker

PRONUNCIATION:

(NAK-uhr)

MEANING:

noun:	1. A person who buys old, sick, or worn-out animals for slaughter.
	2. A person who buys old buildings, ships, etc. to break them up for scrap.
verb tr.:	To tire out.

ETYMOLOGY:

Probably of Scandinavian origin. Earliest documented use: 1574.

USAGE:

"Eddie McIlwaine had it spot-on in Monday's paper: 'If the fates had been kinder and she had never met the iceberg ... she would now be just a dot in H&W history after being broken up in the knacker's yard.'"
Eamonn McCann; In All the Titanic Hype Where is the Memorial to Victims? Belfast Telegraph (Northern Ireland); Mar 30, 2012.

See more usage examples of knacker in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

Every advance in civilization has been denounced as unnatural while it was recent. -Bertrand Russell, philosopher, mathematician, author, Nobel prize in literature (1872-1970)

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