knickers

English

women's knickers

Etymology

Clipping of knickerbockers.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈnɪkəz/
• (US) enPR: nĭkʹərz, IPA^(key): /ˈnɪkɚz/
• 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, New Zealand, Australia) 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

• all fur coat and no knickers
• beknickered
• camiknickers
• French knickers
• get one's knickers in a knot
• get one's knickers in a twist
• gym knickers
• keep one's knickers on
• 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)
• Kabuverdianu: volvu
• Swedish: underbyxor (sv) c pl

Interjection

knickers

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

Translations

a mild exclamation of annoyance

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

   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

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