Page 8 | Do you class knackered as swearing?

DisappointedD · 2026-01-14T19:36:12+00:00

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.

shhblackbag · 14/01/2026 20:12

Absolutely not.

Biskieboo · 14/01/2026 20:12

Not even close! I grew up in the south and have lived in the north for 20 years and have never seen anybody bat an eyelid at its use. I suppose it might be considered rather base in hoity toity suburbs with the twitchiest of curtains but if so who cares. I couldn't care less if my kids used it either.

CalzoneOnLegs · 14/01/2026 20:12

No

tarheelbaby · 14/01/2026 20:12

Down here in the sunny south, PIL are from Kent and reasonably plummy. Their word for extreme tiredness is 'shattered'. I too have heard that knackered has a further meaning of tired from having sex so I'd never say it to them - or anyone else without purpose.

Kids today are not the same. I heard an 'On the Beach' advert in the car with my teen DDs and was laughing about 'silly bookers, get to the back of the queue' and then it turned out they didn't know any difference between silly burgers and silly buggers ... (non-rhotic accent hitting hard) and then I had to explain about buggery ... typical car convo with teens really ...

cinquanta · 14/01/2026 20:11

EmeraldShamrock000 · 14/01/2026 20:10

Point being that “chav” is no longer acceptable, knackered came from knack yard, no longer acceptable.
I don’t make the rules.

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Who does?

Q2C4 · 14/01/2026 20:11

Where I come from it means the same as “shagged out”, so yes, it’s considered rude(ish).

Round111 · 14/01/2026 20:11

DisappointedD · 14/01/2026 20:08

My DD mentioned it being a slur against travelling communities, which makes me even more surprised they have risked using it on radio.

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But when someone starts a new slur word it takes time to be well known. So far about 85% of people on here associate it with the knackers yard and being tired. Unless it’s common knowledge something has become a slur then people will just carry on using it until they are made aware.

EmeraldShamrock000 · 14/01/2026 20:10

Round111 · 14/01/2026 20:06

I have never heard this in my life. Everyone I know uses knackered when they’re tired. In what way is it associated with travellers? Chav was always used to describe people. Knackered was always a feeling.

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Point being that “chav” is no longer acceptable, knackered came from knack yard, no longer acceptable.
I don’t make the rules.

SoUncertain · 14/01/2026 20:10

Hahaha, DH and I have this argument! I think it's not a swear word, he thinks it is. He's from the Midlands if that means anything. He has asked me not to say it in front of DD, so I don't just to be considerate, but yeah, I feel it just means tired.

RegimentalSturgeon · 14/01/2026 20:09

If any bugger tells me ‘knackered’ is swearing, I’ll kick them in the Jacobs.

Original poster

DisappointedD · 14/01/2026 20:08

EmeraldShamrock000 · 14/01/2026 20:03

It was used to describe feeling really tired, now it is a slur against the travelling community so it isn’t socially acceptable, similarly to chav, yet people still use them frequently.
My mistake it isn’t the full word. 🥶 just the short version with a very different meaning.

Edited

My DD mentioned it being a slur against travelling communities, which makes me even more surprised they have risked using it on radio.

OP posts:

Round111 · 14/01/2026 20:06

EmeraldShamrock000 · 14/01/2026 20:03

It was used to describe feeling really tired, now it is a slur against the travelling community so it isn’t socially acceptable, similarly to chav, yet people still use them frequently.
My mistake it isn’t the full word. 🥶 just the short version with a very different meaning.

Edited

I have never heard this in my life. Everyone I know uses knackered when they’re tired. In what way is it associated with travellers? Chav was always used to describe people. Knackered was always a feeling.

MasterBeth · 14/01/2026 20:06

oilead · 14/01/2026 19:39

It used to mean a specific type of being tired. As in, after sex tired.

Yes, I agree with this.

And so I was taught a child that it was, at least, vulgar. Not a word you'd use to your parent, teacher or vicar.

Fifty years on, it's power has obviously diminished.

Bigknivesmakemenervous · 14/01/2026 20:06

Songandance · 14/01/2026 20:05

I was told not to say it as a child as I was told it meant tired after sex.

That said I was also told that twat meant a pregnant fairy.🤣😂

Oh, I was told it was a pregnant goldfish 😂

Songandance · 14/01/2026 20:05

I was told not to say it as a child as I was told it meant tired after sex.

That said I was also told that twat meant a pregnant fairy.🤣😂

WellMaybeYouShouldntBeLivingHeeeeeeee · 14/01/2026 20:05

Tigerbalmshark · 14/01/2026 19:56

No it didn’t! It comes from the knacker’s yard, where old worm out horses are shot and turned into dog meat (historically).

Do some people think the word comes from testicles? 🤣

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I really think this must be it. People who don’t know what the knacker’s yard is have misunderstood the expression as referring to post-sex exhaustion (although that is a pretty awkward linguistic stretch, tbh). And then because of general British prudishness and overexcitement, that misunderstanding has become established — not enough to overtake the original meaning, but enough to get little pockets of people all worked up about a completely innocent word.

SquigglePigs · 14/01/2026 20:04

I file it under "not really swearing but not exactly a nice word". I wouldn't want my 7 yr old using it but I wouldn't blink if a teen did or I heard it in a work setting etc.

Liftedmeup · 14/01/2026 20:04

SweetHydrangea · 14/01/2026 20:02

Are you joking? A swear word to me is fuck, cunt, shit, motherfucker. I have never heard of the word knackered being referred to a swear word. But then again people consider dam to be a swear word as well, so who knows.

Damn is definitely a swear word. It’s blasphemy traditionally

EmeraldShamrock000 · 14/01/2026 20:03

It was used to describe feeling really tired, now it is a slur against the travelling community so it isn’t socially acceptable, similarly to chav, yet people still use them frequently.
My mistake it isn’t the full word. 🥶 just the short version with a very different meaning.

GetyourheadoutoftheovenIris · 14/01/2026 20:02

I don’t like it and don’t use it or expect my dc to use it but wouldn’t consider it swearing.

I do love swearing though.

Cocomelon67 · 14/01/2026 20:02

It used to mean tired from sex. It doesn’t have that connotation anymore. Very few people even know it once meant that. I don’t think it’s a swear word. It probably was 50 years ago.

SweetHydrangea · 14/01/2026 20:02

Are you joking? A swear word to me is fuck, cunt, shit, motherfucker. I have never heard of the word knackered being referred to a swear word. But then again people consider dam to be a swear word as well, so who knows.

CrapNewYear · 14/01/2026 20:02

When I say I'm knackered I'm truly shattered. As in ready for the knackers yard.

Liftedmeup · 14/01/2026 20:01

I do say it - I’m northern and it does mean tired to me - but I’m aware it’s seen as uncouth elsewhere or in different times.

Bigknivesmakemenervous · 14/01/2026 20:01

When I was about ten my friend told me it meant tired after sex and I've believed it ever since. I am an older British person 😂

From Wiktionary:
Usage notes
edit

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).

View source for knackered - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=knackered&action=edit&section=5