English

Women's knickers

Noun

knickers pl ‎(plural only)

1. (colloquial, now US, rare) Knickerbockers.
   • 1931, William Faulkner, Sanctuary, Vintage 1993, p. 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, Mezz Mezzrow and Bernard Wolfe, Really the Blues, Payback Press 1999, p. 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. (Britain, New Zealand) Women's underpants.
   • 2010, Sali Hughes, ‘Calendar girls galore’, The Guardian, 24 Apr 2010:

     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?

Translations

Interjection

knickers

1. A mild exclamation of annoyance.

Translations

See also

• French knickers
• get one's knickers in a twist

French

Alternative forms

• knicker

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /(k)ni.kœʁ/

Noun

knickers m pl ‎(plural only)

1. Abbreviation of knickerbockers.

   Il est venu en knickers.‎ ― He came in knickers.

Usage notes

• The singular form knicker is just another spelling for the plural form which may refer to one or more pair of trousers.