smallclothes en · NOUN
Pronunciation
- (US) audio
Etymology
From small + clothes.
Meanings
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(plural, plural-only) Knee-length breeches, worn especially in the 18th century.
Even fashions, otherwise convenient, as the trousers that have so long taken place of smallclothes, often perhaps owe their continuance to some general defect . . .
1841, Leigh Hunt, Essays:'Only look at his jacket, mother!' cried Annie; 'and a shillingsworth gone from his small-clothes!'
1869, R[ichard] D[oddridge] Blackmore, chapter XI, in Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Sampson Low, Son, & Marston, […], →OCLC:
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(UK, archaic, plural, plural-only) Underwear and other small items of clothing.
Are red socks a secret handshake, a mark of Etonhood, of an allegiance to the place both claimed and disclaimed? And having seen one pair I'm noticing them all over the place, a conspiracy of smallclothes.
2007 April 10, Tobias Hill, “School Stories”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 03 Oct 2014:One hand slid up her thigh and underneath her smallclothes.
2000 August 8, George R[aymond] R[ichard] Martin, “”, in A Storm of Swords (A Song of Ice and Fire; 3), London: Voyager, →ISBN, page 701: