Do you class knackered as swearing?

[DisappointedD]

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

Keir Starmer said it today.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jan/14/onwards-and-sideways-for-keir-after-another-u-turn-leaves-him-going-nowhere

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.

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.

Fuck no

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!

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

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.

How about nuckin fackered? That’s a favourite of mine 😄

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

Never realised it was very mildly offensive many years ago.

Definitely wouldn’t consider it swearing, and would also associate it with the knackers yard rather than sex.

”Shagged out” on the other hand…

Yes agreed on turd. That’s more a swear word in my opinion and I wouldn’t want my children to say it.

I wouldn’t class knackered as a swear word but I also would class fart which I know a lot of people have a problem with.

What on earth ? No it’s not a swear word. I wouldn’t think twice about a child or anyone else saying it. Growing up my grandmother used to act like fart was a swear word. I think ppl get to het up about words. Fair enough u don’t want ur kids going round saying proper swears like fuck and cunt but words like arse etc don’t bother me ! Knsckered is defo not a swear word

I’ve never heard of it being considered a swear word! It’s not formal, but not something I would have thought twice about saying casually.

I don't think I've ever heard of this being a swear word. It just means tired. Would cream crackered be just as offensive for you as well?

Knackers (in Yorkshire) was another name for bollocks, so it was seen as a swear word, same as 'fart', that was also known as a swear word.

Same here (in my 40s), never known it to mean anything other than exhausted. I use "shattered' and "knackered" interchangeably

No, I wasn’t aware that anyone considered it a swear word or even rude.
I’ve only known it as broken or tired.

My Mum would tell me off for using it when I was a kid. It means you're tired from having sex.