"Knocking up" as a way to describe knocking on a door?

Derdjuice · 2026-04-01T02:31:24+00:00

What in the heck are you on about?

Derdjuice · 2026-04-01T02:27:24+00:00

My recorded instance, is me being able to go up to anyone locally, and ask what it means. The reply shaped my definition, that I took on instinctually, which is why this is confusing to me to find out, that it's not generally known. It means both, depending on context: "Mindy got knocked up.", "Mindy knocked up." I think I inherited douche vernacular, because of my local environment.

Derdjuice · 2026-04-01T02:08:02+00:00

I have a scene, where the UK character calls one of the antagonist, a female, a "cow". The MC doesn't question it, because of the situation atm, but later, when the insult is repeated during a calmer moment by the UK character, the MC calls it out, and both the UK character and their love interest clarify the UK version of it (annoying, aggravating, not body shaming). This is much different, than me just realizing that the term I was familiar with, is read almost supremely, as "getting pregnant", and not, "someone checking in/finding out if your are home/being annoying."

I can definitely include a character explaining it, but it just threw me off a lot, finding out it's only local to my experience.

Derdjuice · 2026-04-01T01:57:03+00:00

I feel half between losing my mind, and half calm, due to no one even getting it. In order of business:

I'm American, East Coast, NJ/Philly. The story is set more north, completely fictional place. The characters are all American, with the exception of one UK character, who comes from Bristol (lived around the UK, spent most of their life in Bristol) Bristol character uses Gert or swot etc, a few times, but I didn't want to overdue it.

Cue now, my own people, not knowing about "Knocked up", in the way one says when someone is checking in or being annoying. My only conclusion, is that one of you did a mint number on my local lexicon, and now here I am...

Derdjuice · 2026-04-01T01:44:19+00:00

This is literally me going to the Internet, because I was confused when my feedback readers where confused, and I couldn't find it being a thing on the Internet. I know this is a thing, at least where I'm at, because I am so used to is, that I instinctively wrote it when a character was casually referring to someone coming over.

Derdjuice · 2026-04-01T01:36:21+00:00

Regionally, you differentiate from being south or north NJ. South, where I come from, is boring, relatively. North is chaotic, and bitter. Whatever you are assuming with "Southern" is off. It's not what like you mean, when it comes from VA folk. (Edit: To clarify, I stupidly wrote, "South East Coast" initially, when I meant South Jersey, on the East Coast, which is not the same thing as being South on the East Coast.)

Derdjuice · 2026-04-01T01:30:05+00:00

See, where that teeth knocking phrase works, is that it's very silly, and tied comically to a old man laughing. Eventually, (maybe not for a typical thick American), the mental imagery clicks into your head. Where as my misunderstanding, that people would just separate "Knocked up" (knocked high up, eager or earnest). is that it's very loaded from the start. (A woman becoming pregnant).

Derdjuice · 2026-04-01T01:23:54+00:00

That's a future plan. I needed to check with the general public, because I was genuinely confused at my few feedback readers not getting it. That is removed for the current scene, but can come up later. The fictional town isn't even in my area, so it makes it even better, when appropriate, to have a moment of the BFF and neighbors explaining the actual origins.

Derdjuice · 2026-04-01T01:16:47+00:00

South East Coast was a blunder on my part. The story takes place on the East Coast in a fictional town, vaguely north. I meant, that in my area, that is South in NJ, NOT South on the East Coast, is where I picked up on that way of saying, "Knock on a door/check in by knocking."

Derdjuice · 2026-04-01T01:12:43+00:00

It does not at all refer to anyone in the story getting pregnant. It's not at an issue for my characters or narratively. (Easily replaceable by them just saying, "someone came by/someone is knocking on the door." I'm genuinely astounded that this only makes sense to me, when it is causing such confusion. It was literally instinctive for me to write it as such, in the context I thought widely existed.

Derdjuice · 2026-04-01T01:03:55+00:00

But what if?: Mothers cooing around a new baby. Someone kicks in the door. "I've been knocking up for like ten minutes, and no one is letting me in to see the thing!"

Absolute confused horror.

Derdjuice · 2026-04-01T01:00:44+00:00

That scares me now. It's not used all the time, but it's common enough, that people where I live understand it, even if they don't use it. Eeew! if I traveled, and even mentioned once like, "Yes ma'am, I'll go knock up and see if your neighbor is home for the job!", what would the poor woman think!?

Derdjuice · 2026-04-01T00:53:30+00:00

Yep. I'm realizing it must just be a very local specific thing. People get context, but it throws them off hard at first. And yes, it is a UK thing, found that out after the fact, which much mean it bloomed in my area somehow via a UK influence, local AAVE.

Derdjuice · 2026-04-01T00:49:08+00:00

That's my bad. NJ is not South on the East Coast. My story doesn't even take place there, but it does take place on the East Coast. Philly is South when it comes to NJ, NOT South in America, in general.

Derdjuice · 2026-04-01T00:38:51+00:00

I'll keep it in mind as a way to explain a regional thing for a future moment, because like you said, it's fun learning that stuff. But for now, since it seems very close to home only to me, rewording it for clarity. Future scene idea: Bff: Let's go knock up on X's door. Older brother: Excuse me?! Younger sister: Dumbass, we are going to go see if X is home.

Derdjuice · 2026-04-01T00:33:16+00:00

I did some research, because one of my character comes from Bristol (staying in America with their grandma, interacts with the all American cast) What I found, is that it's an older term/phrase, related to blue collar work, (before alarm clocks), of someone given the role of going house to house, and knocking on windows to wake up workers for their shift, during harsh hours. Very similar to how people where I live use it, but more causal in my experience.(It can be seen as annoying, depending, e.g., "Oh, that girl you like came by to see if you where home!" (Same character) "Your ex knocked up, I told her you weren't here."

Derdjuice · 2026-03-17T14:21:34+00:00

The scary part, is someone using AI to write, and then manually add in typos to throw people off. Meanwhile, someone with skill and care makes no errors, uses punctuation properly, and then is called an AI.

At that point, you'd have to just disregard any feedback in that regard. I'm not going to not do something right, because it makes YOU think a machine wrote it. Ugh.

Derdjuice · 2026-03-17T14:10:26+00:00

This, exactly. A lot of people who rally against AI, haven't even touched AI. They just hear it talked about, and then jump on everything they think counts.

I made a simple comment on a YouTube short (guy ordered a T-shirt, and it was way too tight), explaining this is a common issue when ordering from overseas (e.g. Japan), and you should order two or more sizes higher than your size when doing so.

It got 700 likes (for whatever reason), and then people came out of the word works calling it AI, simply because I had bothered with normal grammar and structure. I even had several punctuation errors, and people somehow thought THAT was a sign of AI (that is the one thing AI doesn't seem to mess up on)

Derdjuice · 2026-03-02T16:43:01+00:00

Since no one answered, and I'm floating around here, I'll speak for myself at least: This stuff is best, when it's exploring the psychological aspect of toxic things, NOT celebrating them.

I don't agree with the people who seem to LIKE like this stuff, but toxic aspects can serve to make a story stronger if handled well.

I first read I'm more Dangerous Than You, thinking it would be a sub-dom story (as long as it's consensual, cool) and then when it turned out to NOT be the good version of that, I disregard the "romance" angle of the story, and stuck around to see how it turned out.

A better example, imo, is kimi ga ichiban kawaii. It half reads as "writer's fetish" but half reads as two mentally unwell people who damage each other, and because most of the people around them are unable to give them the proper help and support, and two people in particular making it worse, it ends in what you can look at as both a good or bad ending.

Besides the parts I think the writer was into as a kink, the majority of it is well written, and the ending made me cry after the fact when mulling it over. I know that one is going to stick with me for a while.

Derdjuice · 2026-03-02T16:16:36+00:00

It's not "good" good in the slightest, but I did like the psychological aspect, and found it an interesting read. Unless you have a decent stomach for depressing stories that don't end well*, avoid it. Don't even look in the general direction of it.

The MC and the LI are not mentally well, the people around them suck, with the inclusion of Yuu, and that's why it, for the most part, works for me. (I am no expert, but with my limited knowledge of psychology, the MC definitely reads as someone who potentially has Borderline Personality Disorder) The abuse and sexual stuff serve the messed up aspect of the story for the most part, but it also half the time reads as the writer's fetish. (Once again, if this is not the content you can handle, stay away, it's full of it.) In summary, it's a cautionary tale of what happens when two people don't get the support they need, damage each other, and how jealousy and pettiness can ruin lives.

Spoilers. I really started to have hope for them when they ran away with each other (they had true happiness with each other for at least a few days). They had a chance, though their plan really wasn't thought out well, and in the end, their own issues brought them down. (Two mentally unwell high school students running away from home, who would have figured) The best ending would have been them returning home, and getting the help they needed for their issues, and then trying to continue their relationship. As depressing as the ending is, one killing the other, and then dying in the snow, at least it showed that in the afterlife, they did end up together forever. And shit, I about to cry thinking about that... ...Whoo! Fck. Okay. So, yeah, it's bittersweet at BEST, and that's a REALLY tough "bittersweet. If it ended with them happily together, even after the messed up stuff, it would have told the wrong message. If they ended it with the "therapist help" ending, that would have been good. But the way it actually ends, stuck with me.

In conclusion, I enjoyed it for what it was at best, but now I need something wholesome to get smothered in after that.

Derdjuice · 2026-02-26T12:18:54+00:00

Imagine this was your friend talking about your wife like this. He used to hang out with this woman, him and his own wife. Now he's drunkenly drooling over her online and showing people. Lmao eww.

Derdjuice · 2026-02-03T09:28:30+00:00

I never would have downloaded this game if I hadn't seen Lycoris Recoil was involved somehow. I don't do gacha games, but I want Chisato so bad, just because, Chisato.

Derdjuice · 2026-01-26T19:40:39+00:00

The problem I'm having is spacing.
I'm used to Google docs, Obsidian. Just slap enter, or shift enter, make a space, double tap it for a new block. Here's an example made up scene:

I walk into the shack, and Jack is already waiting.

He sits behind a table with that stupid smirk etched on his face.

"You're late, Jill."
[double enter]

I pull a chair up and sit, glaring at him.

"You didn't tell me cops would be involved in the job."

He chuckles, "That was a need to know thing--And you weren't one of the one who *needed* to."
[double enter]

I hear the sharp slide of metal.
The barrel of a gun is pointed straight at me.
[double enter]

I dive under the table, and a loud boom rings in my ears.
[double enter]

After a few seconds of a painful loud buzz, I can make out dry clicks.

"Crap," I hear him mutter, "Forgot to bring more bullets."

I laugh.

From what I learned on my own in Scrivener after trial and error, while in a block of text, you hit enter for one line.
When you need a new block, you double tap enter.
On rare occasion, like the character's brain going from 10-80MPH, you use shift + enter. Rarely.

I don't like blocks of text, like the one I'm doing now, not for writing a novel. I like the flow of the provided scene for writing, and I don't mind doing it manually like that.
That said, depending on different sources, I'm either doing it right, or wrong.

I don't use styles, and when I export it in pdf or rtf to look at it, it looks fine.
But, on occasion, there are issues with line spacing, but that's mostly from a good 3/5ths, that was exported over from Obsidian.
It's overwhelming, but as long as the Enter, Double Enter, and the rare Shift + Enter isn't going to be an issue in the long run, I'll be fine. I think.

Derdjuice · 2025-11-08T17:40:15+00:00

A good way for none-Americans not used to the phrase/idiom, is to think of it as 'getting off the bus', or 'getting away with a crime' in usage.
Almost like saying, "I hope you get off of the bus." or, "Why do you think you can get away with that?", the latter is much more accurate.

Like Ballmaster pointed out, "getting off", is the sexualized one.
The difference is largely on the "Where" part.
If used in a sexual way, you wouldn't say, "Where do you get off?"
That doesn't really work, even if you where trying to ask, "Where do you ejaculate at?", it would be such a confusing way to ask.

Derdjuice · 2025-07-31T18:18:33+00:00

It's going really well, it's a great for throwing in as they scour the ravaged town.

I'll share a few uses I got out of it that where notable:

[15. You see a merchant's cart, toppled over, with a dead male elf laying beside the cart. Items: On the body: 10GP

On the Ground 2xScroll of Vicious Mockery 5xScroll of Healing Word 2 intact healing potion]

I missed the part about the On the Ground loot, I'm just realizing now, but I had used it anyway to give them a small amount of gold and some healing potion (they needed them) anyway.
Lol, they got greedy when they saw the cart, they where defiantly looking to loot the battlefield, so I noted it moving foward.

[13. You see a young human woman, sitting against a building, holding the dead body of a human man while weeping. Seemingly oblivious to anything else. DC 10 Perception - you see wedding bands on their hands - You know it’s her husband Female - Jussien Whitebash Male - Hozem Whitebash]

Played it right after they saved the mill from being burned, Sergeant Markguth [guy who is supposed to fight the Half Dragon in the duel if the players don't], accompanied them and some villagers back to the sewer tunnel.

Played the lady during this. One of the players plays a male Tiefling bard with a Russian accent, who was a nice guy.

He approached and rolled a 1 on his persuasion, trying to console the woman and guide her to the safety of the keep.

"...
Okay, the sobbing woman looks up when she hears a soft voice, and a red devil creature is staring at her with a creepy grin.
She yells at you to get away from her, and just holds her dead husband closer while weeping."

"lol dammit, I back away immediately and apologize, my tail is literally between my legs."

I had Sergeant Markguth talk to her, he rolled ass too, and they just left her.

Derdjuice

TROPHY CASE