Dictionary

tennies en · NOUN

Etymology

Clipping of tennis shoe + -ie.

Meanings

1. (US, informal, plural-normally) Trainers, sneakers (sport shoes).
   • Baby Duffy's tennies, jeans, and polo shirt--each borrowed from the grown-up vocabulary for down time--are scaled small, colored bright, and retrofitted with patches at elbow and knee. 1995 September 1, Leah Eskin, “Fashion Statements: the young and the cautious”, in Chicago Reader:
   • The Moore Brothers is a white-boys blues band almost stereotypical in its composition: an energetic, toothpick-chewing drummer; a scrawny, ascetic bass player who stood shorter than his upright bass; a clean-cut Charlie in polo shirt and tennies fingering some classic blues solos--sans painful facial expressions--and the leader, an Andy Renko sort singing and occasionally diddling on harp and keeping things fresh with a remarkable collection of esoteric blues standards. 1989 June 30, Ted Cox, “South Bend, IN”, in Chicago Reader:
   • In 1989 she performed a solo called Fame & Fortune in a pink Afro wig, a tutu, and tennies. 2003 April 11, Laura Molzahn, “Jan Erkert”, in Chicago Reader:

Forms