English

A man wearing breeches.

Alternative forms

• britches (Appalachia, Southern US)

Noun

breeches

1. plural of breech
2. A garment worn by men, covering the hips and thighs; smallclothes.
   • 1829, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey, "The Devil's Thoughts,"

     And how then was the Devil drest?

     Oh! he was in his Sunday's best:

     His jacket was red and his breeches were blue,

     And there was a hole where the tail came through.

3. (informal) Trousers; pantaloons; britches.

Related terms

• breeches buoy: in the life-saving service, a pair of canvas breeches depending from an annular or beltlike life buoy which is usually of cork; this contrivance, inclosing the person to be rescued, is hung by short ropes from a block which runs upon the hawser stretched from the ship to the shore, and is drawn to land by hauling lines
• breeches pipe: a forked pipe forming two branches united at one end
• knee-breeches: breeches coming to the knee, and buckled or fastened there; smallclothes
• wear the breeches: see wear the pants, wear the trousers
• too big for one's britches: unacceptably cocky

Translations

See also

• pantaloons
• britches
• jodhpurs