Knickers
Sponsored by Lesley WilsonCame first in group 1010 in round 1 with 263 votesbeat Quoit on 209 votesbeat Peremptory on 116 votesbeat Primer on 22 votes
Came first in group 253 in round 2 with 395 votesbeat Berserk on 337 votesbeat Postprandial on 187 votesbeat Grackle on 182 votes
Lost in group 127 in round 3 with 465 votesbeaten by Higgledy-piggledy on 810 votes
English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
knickers pl (plural only, attributive knicker)
- (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.
- (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[edit]
Translations[edit]
knickerbockers — see knickerbockers
woman's panties — see also panties
Interjection[edit]
knickers
- (UK, Ireland, colloquial) A mild exclamation of annoyance.
Translations[edit]
a mild exclamation of annoyance
French[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
- knicker m sg
Etymology[edit]
Unadapted borrowing from English knickers, or a clipping of knickerbockers.
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
knickers m pl (plural only)
- knickerbockers
- Synonym: knickerbockers
- Il est venu en knickers. ― He came in knickers.
Usage notes[edit]
- The singular form knicker, unlike the plural form, may only refer to one pair of trousers.
Further reading[edit]
- “knickers”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.