knickers

English

women's knickers

Etymology

Clipping of knickerbockers.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈnɪkəz/
• enPR: nĭkʹərz, Template:audio-IPA

Noun

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, New Zealand) 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?

   For attributive usage of sense 2 see knicker.

Derived terms

• beknickered
• camiknickers
• French knickers
• get one's knickers in a twist
• gym knickers
• knickered
• knickerless
• unknickered
• witches' knickers

 

Translations

knickerbockers — see knickerbockers

woman's panties — see also panties

• Hindi: निकर (hi) m (nikar), जाँघिया (hi) m (jāṅghiyā), जांघिया m (jāṅghiyā), चड्डी (hi) f (caḍḍī), कच्छा (hi) m (kacchā), कच्छ (hi) m (kacch)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Kabuverdianu: volvu

Interjection

knickers

1. A mild exclamation of annoyance.

Translations

a mild exclamation of annoyance

• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

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French

Alternative forms

• knicker m sg

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /(k)ni.kœʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -œʁ

Noun

knickers m pl (plural only)

1. knickerbockers

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

   Synonym: knickerbockers

Usage notes

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

Further reading

• “knickers”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.