smalls en · NOUN · etymology 1
Pronunciation
Etymology
From small.
Meanings
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(Commonwealth, Ireland, UK, informal, plural, plural-only) Underwear.
Unkempt, bearded to the eyes, there he stood clutching his shapeless old cabbage-tree, in mud-stained jumper and threadbare smalls—the very spit of the unsuccessful digger.
1917, Henry Handel Richardson, Australia Felix, Echo Library, published 2007, page 31:The smalls he was wearing were tight.
He's in the garden hanging his smalls on the washing line.
[…]there are also some great B&Bs and guesthouses where you can unpack a toothbrush and fresh set of smalls for the morning.
2008, Donna Wheeler, Melbourne & Victoria City Guide, Lonely Planet, page 198:They billowed in the sticky summer breeze, curved and enormous like the sails of the Sydney Opera House. Just when did my smalls become so impossibly large?
2008, Shauna Reid, The Amazing Adventures of Dietgirl, page 7:
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(plural, plural-only) Small goods.
He reassured another questioner that B.R. were still deeply interested in smalls traffic, but said that there would have to be substantial changes in the mode of operation and that concentration of the traffic was essential.
1963 December, “News and Comment: Smalls rates to be increased?”, in Modern Railways, page 364:
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(dated, plural, plural-only, qualifier:Oxford University slang) The preliminary examination for a degree.
You see, Miss Dodd, an university examination consists of several items: neglect but one, and Crichton himself would be ploughed; because brilliancy in your other papers is not allowed to count; that is how the most distinguished man of our day got ploughed for Smalls.
1863, Charles Reade, Hard Cash:
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(abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis, informal, plural, plural-only) Ellipsis of small ads.
alt of small ads
Provincial English papers still carry their “smalls” — want ads — on the first page.
1957, Morton J. A. McDonald, How to Use Classified Advertising to Sell More Real Estate, page 21:
Synonyms
unmentionables · undies (underwear) · responsions (preliminary examination) · little go (preliminary examination)