smalls

English

Etymology

From small.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɔːlz

Noun

smalls (plural only)

1. (UK, Australia, informal) Underwear.

   He's in the garden hanging his smalls on the washing line.

   The smalls he was wearing were tight.

   • 1917, Henry Handel Richardson, Australia Felix, 2007, Echo Library, page 31,

     Unkempt, bearded to the eyes, there he stood clutching his shapeless old cabbage-tree, in mud-stained jumper and threadbare smalls—the very spit of the unsuccessful digger.

   • 2008, Donna Wheeler, Melbourne & Victoria City Guide, Lonely Planet, page 198,

     […] there are also some great B&Bs and guesthouses where you can unpack a toothbrush and fresh set of smalls for the morning.

   • 2008, Shauna Reid, The Amazing Adventures of Dietgirl, page 7,

     They billowed in the sticky summer breeze, curved and enormous like the sails of the Sydney Opera House.

     Just when did my smalls become so impossibly large?

2. Plural form of small