different between tired vs knackered

English

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ta??d/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ta??d/
• Rhymes: -a??(?)d

Verb

tired

1. simple past tense and past participle of tire

Adjective

tired (comparative more tired or tireder, superlative most tired or tiredest)

1. In need of some rest or sleep.
2. Fed up, annoyed, irritated, sick of.

   I'm tired of this

3. Overused, cliché.

   a tired song

4. (slang, African-American Vernacular) ineffectual; incompetent

Usage notes

• Adverbs often applied to "tired": physically, mentally, emotionally.

Synonyms

• (in need of rest): exhausted, fatigued, languid; See also Thesaurus:fatigued
• (in need of sleep): sleepy; See also Thesaurus:sleepy
• (fed up): See also Thesaurus:annoyed
• (overused): See also Thesaurus:hackneyed

Translations

See also

• I am tired
• sick and tired
• that tired feeling

Anagrams

• drite, tride, tried

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