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Original poster

Do you class knackered as swearing?

264 replies

DisappointedD · 14/01/2026 19:36

I have always thought of it as a mild swear word. A word I wouldn’t want my younger children using but wouldn’t be too bothered by a teen (but not to their grandparents) type word.

There is a current radio ad using the word which made me think about it earlier. I was surprised when I heard it and didn’t think it was a word I’d heard used in ad’s before.

OP posts:
SoOriginal · 14/01/2026 19:47

I’ve always considered knackered in the same category as shattered.

Never realised it was very mildly offensive many years ago.

Serpentstooth · 14/01/2026 19:47

It's a now unused term for sending one of your old animals - horses mostly - near the end of its working life to the slaughterhouse. To the knackerman. They also castrated young male animals, took their knackers off. If you are knackered, you are exhausted, from working hard. It's not swearing.

dementedpixie · 14/01/2026 19:46

I have never known it to be associated with tiredness after sex and I'm in my 50s. I use it to mean I'm really exhausted

Mugtree · 14/01/2026 19:46

I remember usinging as a teenager, after coming home from Guides and hearing another girl use it routinely to mean tired.

My Dad was furious with me, which was unusual (I mean, I rememeber this incident), although generally I knew swearing wasn't allowed.

I think it's a coarse colloquialism, rather than swearing? It's still not something I say, but that might be my childhood trauma!

billiongulls · 14/01/2026 19:45

Fuck no

Original poster
DisappointedD · 14/01/2026 19:45

I’ve never heard the sex connection but wonder if I was also told off as child and that’s the part that’s stuck as it being a not great word.

OP posts:
echt · 14/01/2026 19:45

It's vulgar, as is turd, but not sweary.

It just means so tired as to be fit for the knacker's yard, i.e. be shot and boiled up for glue. It has no intrinsic sexual connotations.

Appletree56 · 14/01/2026 19:44

Yes but only because my Dad told me off for using it when young. Seem to remember him saying it was something to do with sex. Always stuck in my whenever I hear someone say it

Original poster
DisappointedD · 14/01/2026 19:44

WhatNoRaisins · 14/01/2026 19:42

Bugger and turd are what I consider more mild swear words. I wouldn't say them in polite company that I'm trying to impress with my manners but I wouldn't expect people to react as badly as if I'd said fuck.

Funny isn’t it as I would never think of turd being a swear word, just a very childish word.

OP posts:
DramaAlpaca · 14/01/2026 19:43

No, not at all.

But I remember getting told off for saying it by my mum as a child about 50 years ago, because she thought it was an inappropriate word for me to use.

DappledThings · 14/01/2026 19:43

First time I've ever heard anyone connects it with sex.

summitfever · 14/01/2026 19:43

I was told once it meant tired after sex. Must have been in an old Oxford dictionary or something. So I guess it’s a bit rude in that context but that’s also quite an old fashioned connotation. Not relevant in modern times so not a swear word in my book

WhatNoRaisins · 14/01/2026 19:42

Bugger and turd are what I consider more mild swear words. I wouldn't say them in polite company that I'm trying to impress with my manners but I wouldn't expect people to react as badly as if I'd said fuck.

rereturner · 14/01/2026 19:42

My lovely dm used to tell me off for saying that. She also didn’t let me watch Michael Barrymore’s Strike It Lucky back in the day because it was ‘common’. So I didn’t pay much attention to ‘knackered’ being a swear word but I believe it may have sexual connotations *grabs smelling salts. In the real world I think it’s fine.

I got disciplined in primary school in the 1980’s for saying ‘crap’. Had no idea some people thought this was a swear word either 🤷‍♀️

UnusualOtter · 14/01/2026 19:42

Not at all. It means I'm so tired it feels like I need to be carted off to the knackers yard. I say it all the time. Its only on here some years ago I heard some people seem to think it's something to do with sex, which it isn't

Funnily enough my mum was very anti swearing and told me off for saying pissed off once, yet she was fine with calling someone a sod, or a bugger

namechange272727 · 14/01/2026 19:41

I think it divides opinion - I still remember the horrified reaction when I announced I was knackered at school age 6 😅. Many use it just to mean tired whilst others think it has connotations of being tired from having sex…

DoIdriveaVauxhallZafira · 14/01/2026 19:41

No, I consider it slang. I guess in my grandparents day it might have been considered mild swearing. I Wouldn't use it in polite/formal conversation.

purpleme12 · 14/01/2026 19:41

Erm no it really isn't
It's just slang for 'tired'!

cinquanta · 14/01/2026 19:41

No, and I am quite prim and proper.

I had the playlist changed at my gym because it was full of real swear words.

Gingerdeer · 14/01/2026 19:41

Squirrelchops1 · 14/01/2026 19:38

Google it

Show quote history

I googled it and it just says “tired”. I say it around kids all the time. Never even crossed my mind that it was rude?!? (In my 30s and from the south)

Devuelta81 · 14/01/2026 19:40

It isn't a swear word or rude (not in the south either!) I have never thought of it as anything other than a casual way of saying exhausted.

DappledThings · 14/01/2026 19:40

DisappointedD · 14/01/2026 19:40

Just because it has a meaning doesn’t automatically mean it’s not a swear word or pleasant.

Show quote history

It's no different to saying "I'm exhausted" other than it being informal.

SophieJo · 14/01/2026 19:40

AI
In British slang, "knackered" means extremely tired or exhausted, like "I'm absolutely knackered.
"knackered" means extremely tired or exhausted, like "I'm absolutely knackered after work," but it can also mean something is broken or worn out, such as a "knackered old TV". It's a common informal term for being completely worn out, stemming from the old term for sending worn-out horses to the "knacker's yard" for disposal, hence "tired out" or "finished". after work," but it can also mean something is broken or worn out, such as a "knackered old TV". It's a common informal term for being completely worn out, stemming from the old term for sending worn-out horses to the "knacker's yard" for disposal, hence "tired out" or "finished".

Never thought of it as a swear word.

Original poster
DisappointedD · 14/01/2026 19:40

BashfulClam · 14/01/2026 19:37

It means tired or broken, swear word? 😂

Just because it has a meaning doesn’t automatically mean it’s not a swear word or pleasant.

OP posts:
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