pants

attributive pant

1. AustraliaCanadaIndiaNew ZealandNorthern EnglandPhilippinesSingaporeSouth AfricaUSpluralplural onlyAn outer garment that covers the body from the waist downwards, covering each leg separately, usually as far as the ankles; trousers.First known use 19th c.

   The pants are fine, but the jacket will have to be altered.

   5 more examples

   “But they cover the legs,” Joseph explained. “That is the only reason my people wear pants: to cover the legs in the winter, or when traveling through rough country, full of thorns. In warm weather, or in open country, pants are unnecessary, uncomfortable, and foolish.”

   1933, Kenneth Roberts, Rabble in Arms, published 1996, page 220

   It's in the evening after dark when the blackleg miner creeps to work. With his moleskin pants and his dirty shirt, there goes the blackleg miner.

   1970 June 28, traditional, “The Blackleg Miner” (track 4), in Hark! The Village Wait, performed by Steeleye Span

   Then he gave me a last desperate push and I tripped over the shorts caught around my ankles and fell down. I tried to pull my pants up with my boxing gloves but without success.[…]In those days nobody wore underpants and I was bare-arsed and fancy free in front of everyone.

   1989, Bryce Courtenay, The Power of One, Penguin, published 2006, page 427

   Look for pants with reinforced seats and knees and full-length side zippers that make it possible to put the pants on while you are wearing boots, crampons, skis, or snowshoes.

   2010, Ronald C. Eng, editor, Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills, 8th edition, US: The Mountaineers Books, page 24

   I rolled up the legs of the pants, then I went back into the trees.

   2005, Octavia E. Butler, Fledgling, page 12

   Synonyms: breeks, britches, hosen, slacks, strides, trousers

2. UKpluralplural onlyAn undergarment that covers the genitals and often the buttocks and the neighbouring parts of the body; underpants.First known use 19th c.

   Big girls get candy for dry pants.

   1976, Nathan H. Azrin, Richard M. Foxx, Toilet Training in Less Than a Day, published 1988, page 127

   2 more examples

   I decided to pass up her underclothes, not from feelings of delicacy, but because I couldn't see myself putting her pants on and snapping her brassière.

   1939, Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep, Penguin, published 2011, page 39

   As she bent over the intercom the little skirt went peek-a-boo and you could see white pants cupping her buttocks like a bra.

   1984, Martin Amis, Money, Vintage, published 2005, page 183

   Synonyms: underwear

3. UKpluralplural onlyslangRubbish; something worthless.

   You're talking pants!

   1 more example

   The film was a load [or pile] of pants.

comparative more pants · superlative most pants

1. UKslangOf inferior quality, rubbish.

   Your mobile is pants — why don’t you get one like mine?

   2 more examples

   'Is that what you're going to do when you graduate?' he asked. 'Be a photographer?' 'I wish, but I'm pants at the technical stuff. ...'

   2015, T. R. Richmond, What She Left, Penguin Books, page 39

   "Lee? How'd you manage to find your way here? You're pants with directions. You always get lost."

   2019, Game Freak, Pokémon Sword and Shield, spoken by Hop

present singular third person pantses · participle present pantsing · participle past pantsed · past pantsed

1. To pull someone’s pants down; to forcibly remove someone’s pants.

   [T]he other boys, Stretch Latham and Rod Becker mainly, pantsed him, got his jockey shorts away and threw them onto Hubcap Willie’s roof.

   1980, William Hogan (author), The Quartzsite Trip, Atheneum, page 242

   2 more examples

   Keith Gerber has been pantsed twice already this summer by Lannie and Cling, and so his face is more resolved, the fear tempered by the fact that he understands these things to be inevitable.

   1948, Carolina Quarterly, University of California, page 47

   Richard did not stand too close to him, because he was always trying to pants him, and he would have died of shame if he did it tonight, because he knew his BVDs were dirty at the trap door.

   1993, Harold Augenbraum, Ilan Stavans, Growing Up Latino: Memoirs and Stories, page 174

   Synonyms: depants, de-pants, debag, keg, dack, sag

1. pluralplural of pant

1. indicativepresentsingularthird personthird-person singular simple present indicative of pant

1. pluralplural of Pant