Definitions
Etymologies
- Alteration of breeches ("trousers, pantaloons") in use since at least the 18th century in Britain and British colonies. (Wiktionary)
- Alteration of breeches, pl. of breech. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Harry Reid reminds me of a constipated “old-maid” in britches.”
Think Progress » Drudge’s Non-Story: Reid Has Criticized The Patriot Act For Years
“I suppose we got our old fashioned expression "britches" from that.”
“Unknown to the stranger the condition of his "britches" had probably given him his credit rating with Old Coonrod, for he held that patches upon the front of trousers, if the seat were whole, were decorations of honor, showing the man had torn them doing something, going forward.”
“Some of the boys wore caps, or little white hats with the crown pushed in all around, and, though it wasn't muddy and didn't look as though it were going to rain, each one of them had his "britches" turned up, and that puzzled the mountain boy sorely; but no matter why they did it, he wouldn't have to turn his up, for they didn't come to the tops of his shoes.”
“They would then halt, go aside and put on their shoes, while their barefooted gallants, with tow and cotton shirts and "britches," stood in the road till their return.”
“His "britches" are dressed buckskin, tight as the skin, with sole-leather buttons sewed on with a leather thong.”
“Nearly breathless from laughing, she told me she'd been reaching for some canned pineapple and, because she'd lost so much weight, her "britches" had fallen down!”
“Up until now, I have mainly watched Jeremy's "britches" roles, where he "wears a variety of hats from various periods" (was I think how he put it himself?).”
“I think I'll stay with my Ballard cloth britches. $400 for a pair of bibs is out of my league.”
“The heroine will wear a calico dress or tight britches and a shirt opened to show cleavage.”
Dorothy Garlock discusses the western novel genre and the art of writing a 'western'.
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘britches’.
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pants
all kinds of pants
pantile, dopant, flippant, agapanthus, panther, rampant, smarty-pants, pantsuit, pantothen, participant, pantry, pantoscopic and 37 more...
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the first list
an immense, grandiloquent list that loads like a thousand years sentence in stone. new words are in the other lists.
ridiculous, brummagem, predicament, sanctimonious, vapid, eschew, admonish, auspicious, capitulation, enumerate, lachrymose, tenet and 1648 more...
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Twitter favorites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favorite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
unfathomably, glice, cuh, fab, ciggaty, doll, thuggin, oxymoronic, pineapple, succubutt, griming, cheeky and 3027 more... -
Stalking Darkness
Words and phrases from Lynn Flewelling's book, Stalking Darkness.
inquest, halyard, catamount, occlude, founder, more, grouse, grapple, water butt, antepenultimate, palimpsest, hob and 196 more...
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Pluralia Tantum
Nouns that are common in plural form but are non-existent or rarely used in singular form.
scissors, thanks, clothes, remains, tights, trousers, pants, news, billiards, means, mathematics, physics and 221 more...
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curligirli0's Words
crapulous, swish, shiatsu, zen, xenoglossy, nincompoop, loquacious, pianissimo, onomatopoeia, imperturbable, silky, hosanas and 379 more...
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huck finnian
ain't, stretchers, without, sivilize, hogshead, victuals, bulrushers, tolerable, goggles, middling, reckoned, who-whooing and 287 more...
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Favorite Words of AWP13
We asked attendees who visited the Wordnik booth what their favorite words were, and these are what they told us. (AWP is an annual conference for writers and those in the writing world.)
cling, declivity, susurrus, caramel, cataract, please, fester, reverie, kerplunk!, defenestration, colonel, ocean and 174 more...
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sionnach's Words
contumely, fomite, holmgang, poltroon, eleemosynary, obsidian, nugatory, grindcore, felch, recrudescent, pyx, parenteral and 3271 more...
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Winter's Bone vocabulary
Study list of difficult words from Daniel Woodrell's novel Winter's Bone. In reverse order: start at the bottom to see words from the beginning of the novel!
plaid, lazy susan, lope, furtive, dour, scamper, hard-boiled, implacable, dainty, stomp, resignation, crank and 138 more...
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sarahatlee's Words
pants, nekkid, schadenfreude, unseasonably, illicit, glaswegian, cripes, futz, drawers, scupper, coulrophobic, redacted and 254 more...
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Like True Newfoundlanders
A place for me to store my Newfoundland English, as I learn it. (Might take a while.)
screech-in, screech, moose milk, bucklish, buckly, buckaloon, buccaloon, newfoundland sock, rum runner, scravel, newfoundland, oonchook and 112 more...
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Below the Belt
Anything worn from the waist down.
chausses, pantaloons, britches, trossers, buckskins, chaps, galligaskins, gregs, gaskins, breeches, knee breeches, knee pants and 93 more...
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persnickety parlance
behoove, ebullient, insouciant, insipient, froth, quandary, quixotic, tendril, maktub, furrow, furl, anastrophe and 1076 more...
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sartorial splendor
Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.
-Mark Twainapplique, ascot, brogue, dressing gown, frippery, gusset, grommet, placket, silhouette, whipstitch, appliqué, baste and 59 more...
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Haberdashery
anorak, wale, grommet, skivvies, tenterhook, negligee, britches, tarlatan, fez, fedora, cap-a-pie, duds and 32 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for britches.
chained_bear "Newfoundland fishermen also prize the female gonads, a two-pronged organ they call the britches, because its shape resembles a pair of pants. Britches are fried like sounds." (see isinglass)
—Mark Kurlansky, Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World (New York: Penguin, 1997), 34 Jul 14, 2009