knickers

English

women's knickers

Etymology

Clipping of knickerbockers.

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA(key): /ˈnɪkəz/
  • (US) enPR: nĭkʹərz, IPA(key): /ˈnɪkɚz/
    • Audio (Southern England):(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɪkə(ɹ)z

Noun

knickers pl (plural only, attributive knicker)

  1. (colloquial, now US, rare) Knickerbockers.
    • 1931, William Faulkner, Sanctuary, Vintage, published 1993, page 29:
      Students in the University were not permitted to keep cars, and the men – hatless, in knickers and bright pull-overs – looked down upon the town boys who wore hats cupped rigidly upon pomaded heads […] .
    • 1946, Milton “Mezz” Mezzrow, Bernard Wolfe, “Them First Kicks are a Killer”, in Really the Blues, New York, N.Y.: Random House, book 2 (1923–1928: Chicago, Chicago), page 77:
      He was a student at Notre Dame, a robust Joe-College kind of kid, husky and tall and always dressed in plus-four knickers.
  2. (UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) Women's underpants.
    • 2010 April 24, Sali Hughes, “Calendar girls galore”, in The Guardian:
      The debate here is not over whether raising £26,000 (and counting) for our troops is a wonderful thing – it unarguably is – but over whether, whenever times are tough and money must be found, our default reaction as women should be to take off our knickers to help out?

Derived terms

Translations

Interjection

knickers

  1. (UK, Ireland, colloquial) A mild exclamation of annoyance.

Translations

French

Alternative forms

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English knickers, or a clipping of knickerbockers.

Pronunciation

Noun

knickers m pl (plural only)

  1. knickerbockers
    Synonym: knickerbockers
    Il est venu en knickers. ― He came in knickers.

Usage notes

  • The singular form knicker, unlike the plural form, may only refer to one pair of trousers.

Further reading

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