Dictionary

knee-breeches en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˌniːˈbɹɪtʃɪz/ (UK)
• /ˌniˈbɹɪtʃəz/ (US)

Etymology

From knee + breeches.

Meanings

1. (plural, plural-only) Breeches reaching down to or just below the knee.
   • All over British Africa, speakers in their traditional wigs and knee-breeches presided over the rectangular debating chambers of the Westminster model, in which ‘government’ and ‘opposition’ sat facing each other. 1967, Roland Oliver, Anthony Atmore, chapter 16, in Africa Since 1800, Cambridge University Press, published 2005, page 225:
   • Practically everyone in the army wore corduroy knee-breeches, but there the uniformity ended. 1938 April, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter I, in Homage to Catalonia, London: Secker & Warburg, →OCLC:
   • Orthodox Jews, in knee-breeches, with round hats and ringlets down their cheeks, were indulging in strange jerking movements, like puppets, while reading books […] 1996, Harry Mulisch with translated by Paul Vincent, chapter 63, in The Discovery of Heaven, Penguin, section 4:
   • This Eben did every day till he grew out of knee-breeches into long corduroy trousers. 1918, Caradoc Evans, “The Talent Thou Gavest”, in My People: Stories of the Peasantry of West Wales, New York: Boni and Liveright, page 68:

Forms