plus fours

alternative plus-fours

1. pluralplural onlyWide knickerbocker breeches, so called because originally they were designed with four inches of excess material so as to hang in a fold below the fastening beneath the knee; traditionally associated with sports, especially golf.

   Other Americans went to the opposite extreme. They donned plus-fours, carried canes, and affected British accents. What were natural habits for the British became artificial mannerisms for their American emulators.

   2010, Thomas J. Schaeper, Kathleen Schaeper, “Yanks and Brits”, in Rhodes Scholars, Oxford, and the Creation of an American Elite, New York, NY: Berghahn Books, →ISBN, page 50

   1 more example

   And he looked quite smart in his brown plus fours. A few years ago he would not have dared to wear plus fours. They had belonged exclusively to the wealthier folk. Now everybody wore them. He was pleased with his pair. Quite cheap they had been too.

   2009, Alan Gould, Every Creature of God Is Good, Lulu.com