Meanings
- CommonwealthIrelandUKinformalpluralplural onlyBriefs that have a fly as part of an inverted Y formed by the seams.
Even dressed in lurid red-and-white Y-fronts, a string vest and dockers' boots, [Tilda] Swinton is a magnetic presence.
2026 August 29, Sarah Hemming, “Why Tilda Swinton is dusting off her Y-fronts”, in FT Weekend (Life & Arts section), London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 122 more examples
Setting a spatted foot on the bench that ran down the middle of the changing-room with elegant distain, Adrian began to flip through a pile of Y-fronts and rugger shorts with his cane.
1991 September, Stephen Fry, chapter 1, in The Liar, London: Heinemann, →ISBN, section I, page 6I did the latter, so in writing this I have put it on record that I am one of the few men who has spent Christmas Eve running across a Kentish marsh in his Y-fronts with two horses trotting after him in close company.
2013, Mike Peyton, Mike Peyton’s Floating Assets, page 4Synonyms: underwear
Synonyms & antonyms
nounBriefs that have a fly as part of an inverted Y formed by the seams.
Origin
Genericized trademark, from the inverted Y-shaped seams at the front.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
Y-fronts. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Y-fronts
“Y-fronts.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Y-fronts. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Y-fronts,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Y-fronts.
Source: Y-fronts on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.