Dictionary

pedal pushers en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio
• /ˈpɛdəl ˌpʊʃɚz/ (General-American)
• /ˈpɛdl̩ ˌpʊʃəz/ (Received-Pronunciation)

Etymology

From pedal pusher (“cyclist”) + -s (suffix forming pluralia tantum and regular plurals of nouns), as they were originally worn by cyclists.

Meanings

1. (plural, plural-only) Women's casual trousers, usually fairly form-fitting, that end at the calves.
   • I will always remember the floral broadcloth blouse, pedal pushers, sun hat, and cotton sneakers she wore while picking strawberries. 2021 September 16, Charles Harbison, “Always the Gold Sandal”, in Jeffrey Goldberg, editor, The Atlantic, Washington, D.C.: The Atlantic Monthly Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 26 Apr 2023:
   • Tall and handsome, Ms. [Cherry] Jones, 53, was wearing pedal pushers and a gray T-shirt but had kept on her high-buttoned Mrs. Warren boots. Her manner was not unlike her outfit: forthright, unaffected, a little playful. 2010 September 5, Charles McGrath, “Single, and singular, women become her”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 10 Nov 2022:
   • He drove beneath a canopy of elms, then along a stretch of open shore, then past the municipal docks, where a woman in pedal pushers stood casting for bullheads. 1987, Tim O’Brien, “Speaking of Courage”, in The Things They Carried […], Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin/Seymour Lawrence, published 1990, →ISBN, page 127:
   • Medium close shot of a tall slender girl of fifteen with the face of a Nordic madonna. no, proclaims the apron attached to the waistband of her ragged pedal pushers; no, no, the patches over her budding breasts. 1948 August, Aldous Huxley, “The Script”, in Ape and Essence, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, →OCLC, page 96:
2. (form-of, plural) plural of pedal pusher
   form of pedal pusher

Forms

Coordinates

capri pants · clamdiggers

Deriveds

pedal-pusher

Translations (8)

af trapperbroek (women’s casual trousers, usually fairly form-fitting, that end at the calves) · ar ضاغط قدمي (women’s casual trousers, usually fairly form-fitting, that end at the calves) · fi pohjehousut (women’s casual trousers, usually fairly form-fitting, that end at the calves) · hu halásznadrág (women’s casual trousers, usually fairly form-fitting, that end at the calves) · fr legging (women’s casual trousers, usually fairly form-fitting, that end at the calves) · pl rybaczki (women’s casual trousers, usually fairly form-fitting, that end at the calves) · fr pantacourt (women’s casual trousers, usually fairly form-fitting, that end at the calves) · mk бицикли́стички (women’s casual trousers, usually fairly form-fitting, that end at the calves)