pac-a-mac

noun

A lightweight rainjacket that can be compressed into a small pocket-sized bag.

Meanings

nounpac-a-mac (plural pac-a-macs)

plural pac-a-macs

  1. UKA lightweight rainjacket that can be compressed into a small pocket-sized bag.

    I am the only customer in the Perch in possession of a backpack and wearing a pac-a-mac, which I've yet to take off despite the sun coming out.

    2017, Tom Chesshyre, From Source to Sea
    2 more examples

    And there she was - wearing a dark blue pac-a-mac over a blue brushed-nylon nightdress, topped off with a hairnet. It was as though Death itself had just walked into the kitchen. She always wore the pac-a-mac because a dressing gown would have taken up valuable space in her suitcase.

    2003, Eric Goulden, A Dysfunctional Success: The Wreckless Eric Manual, page 20

    It was raining hard when the girls came back into the Brownie circle for vespers, and the gaggle of mums gathered in the Drill Hall porch, sweating in their pac-a-macs and listening to the water swishing down the guttering.

    2011, Kate Harrison, Brown Owl's Guide To Life

Origin

Originally a brand name coined in 1949 as a shortening of "pack a macintosh".

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

pac-a-mac. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pac-a-mac

MLA

“pac-a-mac.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pac-a-mac. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “pac-a-mac,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pac-a-mac.

Source: pac-a-mac on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.