Do you class knackered as swearing?

Yeah I used to get told off for saying it.

That doesn't make it a swear word though

I’ve lived down south my entire life and it’s never been a swear word where I am

It’s funny isn’t it. We attach different meanings to words based on our lived experience. I’m in my 30s in the south and it was definitely considered rude growing up. But other words mentioned on this thread are just used in everyday language.

When i was growing up it was considered rude rather than swearing. I don't like hearing children say it.
I was surprised to hear Starmer saying it today and saying the country was screwed by the torys. Came across as uncouth and like a child that had just discovered the word fuck.

You’d hate my house 😆

When I was younger it was commonly accepted to mean tired from having sex. I don’t think it’s a swear word, but I wouldn’t want my kids using it for this reason - though I don’t think that meaning is widespread!

I actually feel in my heart 😄 that it’s a moderate swear word, but I know that not everyone does.

I always feel a bit shocked when I hear it. I wouldn’t want my teen to use it.

@DuckbilledSplatterPuff “I'm cream crackered….”, my SIL actually says this to me when he pops in for a cup of tea after a hard days work.

He considers me a bit prim, but I do like a bit of the cockney rhyming!

Yes, knackered has nothing to do with sex and never did. It relates to knacker’s yard.

Knackered, as has been said, is from knacker’s yard where old and worn out horses were sent before going off for pet food and the glue factory. It has nothing to do with sex, I have no clue where that weird idea must have come from.
This all reminds me of my rather religious BIL and his wife, very down on swearing but will happily use ‘blimey’, ‘crikey’ and other oldskool exclamations without seemingly realising their blasphemous origins but won’t tolerate the robust, but once upon a time perfectly acceptable in polite company, Anglo Saxon and Middle English that’s evolved into many of our current swear words, and no, I haven’t told them because it amuses me.
I do wish people would look into the etymological roots of words before they get their knickers in a knot about them, though.

I love the way people are posting up definitions off the Internet as if that is somehow more authoritative than actual people who've spoken the language all their lives.

Never heard that. I've always known it to be rude in a mild way and to come from the knacker ie the person/ industry which kills and repurposes old useless animals.
Learned it from Animal Farm when Boxer (RIP Boxer) is taken away in the knackers van and sold for glue to buy whiskey for the pigs. #spoiler 😂

news to me too.

Always thought it described just being so tired out that you were only fit for the knackers yard. One of our teachers used to say "Would you say that to The Queen?" Probably not as she was very fond of horses.

"I'm cream crackered Ma'am." would probably be acceptable I guess.

Sounds like you've been reading the Urban Dictionary!

It's slang but definitely not a swear word and I've heard all sorts of people use it in various situations all my life but never in a sexual context.

When younger I always thought same as OP as in its a mild swear word, but I don’t bat an eyelid when I hear it now.

Apologies is this has already been posted. From Chat GPT -

“I’m knackered” comes from knackers’ yards.

The short version

A knacker was a person whose job was to collect animals (usually horses) that were old, injured, or dead and process them for glue, leather, or fat. These animals were sent to a knacker’s yard.”

That wasn’t its original meaning, though.

Also, nobody says ‘I’m bollocked’ to mean they are tired after sex.

Definitely not a swear word, my dm swears maybe 2 or 3 times a year but will regularly say knackered!

I don’t think it’s a word I’ve ever used but I don’t swear and I wouldn’t think it was a swear word 🤷‍♀️

Just found this online to answer your question:

Formerly considered a rude word – possibly implying that the subject was exhausted from having sex, perhaps due to conflation with knackers (“testicles”) – and still considered offensive by some (primarily older British people).

I will always laugh now when someone tells me they are knackered! And that’s me educated - I’ll not be using it again either.

Isn't it related to the business of a knackers yard? That's what we used to call the abattoir when I was young in the 70s and 80s. It's where tired and run-down animals went. It's the first time I've heard of a non-swear everyday word possibly being considered to be rude. It's usually the other way around where swear words lose their potency to offend over time.

It makes me laugh when young kids say it but that's because to me it sounds like something an older person would say, not quite right coming out of their mouths. I hadn't considered that might be because it's swearing though.

It's something to do with killing an animal when it's past its useful live. My mum would class it as a swear word and would have told me off for saying it as a child. Akin to "bloody".

Yes bugger as well is a minor swear word. Means fucking someone up the arse though so I can see more clearly why it's offensive