different between shattered vs knackered

English

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /??æt?d/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /??æt?d/
• Hyphenation: shat?tered

Verb

shattered

1. simple past tense and past participle of shatter

Adjective

shattered (comparative more shattered, superlative most shattered)

1. physically broken into pieces
2. emotionally defeated or dispirited
   • 2000 Lionel Robbins, A history of economic thought: the LSE lectures, Princeton University Press, p221

     Well, she died after seven years of marriage, and Mill thought that he was shattered, and shattered no doubt he was, in the sense of this absolutely irreparable emotional loss.

   • 2000 Nellie McHenry, Forbidden Dreams of Love, chapter 26

     She refused to see him for two days. He was shattered. He sent his apologies.

   • 2010 Mary Alice Beasley, Shattered Lens: A Tale of Domestic Violence and Redemption Through Love, AuthorHouse, p261

     Yes, he had gotten his revenge for my rejection. I was shattered but remained silent.

3. (Britain, colloquial) extremely tired or exhausted

   I stayed up all night working, and now I'm completely shattered.

Translations

Anagrams

• Strathdee, threadest

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?næk.?d/

Etymology 1

From the verb knacker.

Adjective

knackered (comparative more knackered, superlative most knackered)

1. (Britain, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, slang) Tired or exhausted.
   • 2002, Robert Edenborough, Effective Interviewing: A Handbook of Skills and Techniques, pages 97-98

     I've got this job in a warehouse just now and it finishes quite early but I'm dead knackered at the end of the day so I don't know about going out and like studying every night.

   • 2003, Hugh Dauncey, Geoff Hare (editors), The Tour de France, 1903-2003: A Century of Sporting Structures, Meanings and Values, Frank Cass Publishers, London, 2005, page 225,

     Then, it all just gets worse and worse, you don't sleep so much, so you don't recover as well from the day's racing, so you go into your reserves, you get more knackered, so you sleep less... It's simply a vicious circle.

   • 2009, Grace Maxwell, Falling & Laughing: The Restoration of Edwyn Collins, page 84,

     So my joy at hearing his voice quickly turns to a paroxysm of anxiety as he manages by exhausted gesture and sound to let us know how knackered he feels, how desperate to get horizontal, almost from the first moment he lands in the chair.

Synonyms

• (tired, exhausted): cream crackered; See also Thesaurus:fatigued

Derived terms

• cream crackered (Cockney rhyming slang)
• Kerry Packered (Cockney rhyming slang)

Translations

Verb

knackered

1. simple past tense and past participle of knacker

Etymology 2

From "ready for the knacker's yard" or "fit to be knackered", meaning "worn-out livestock, fit to be slaughtered and rendered".

Adjective

knackered (comparative more knackered, superlative most knackered)

1. (Britain, Ireland, South Africa, colloquial) Broken, inoperative.
   • 2009, John Newton, Vance Miller - Kitchen Gangster?, page 82

     We take an old knackered machine out to China and say, 'Copy that, brand new,' and they do.

Synonyms

• (broken, inoperative): broken, worn-out; See also Thesaurus:out of order

Translations

Related terms

• knacker
• knacker's yard