Meanings
- historicalpluralplural onlyPadding worn by actors and other performers to expand their body shape.
The symmetricals he refers to were a false rubber “skin” that gave men a female torso or shape.
2004, Anne Alison Barnet, Extravaganza King: Robert Barnet and Boston Musical Theatre2 more examples
[…] what were known as "symmetricals," lumps of batting strategically placed, distorting the girls' natural curves to the masculine truck-horse taste of the times.
1942, Douglas Gilbert, Lost Chords: The Diverting Story of American Popular Songs, page 45After some soulful discussions with Annabelle, Charlotte found what seemed an ideal solution: the stage padding then known as symmetricals, used not just by women but by men to fill out thin legs and upper body mass.
2007, Grant Hayter-Menzies, Charlotte Greenwood: The Life and Career of the Comic Star of Vaudeville, Radio and Film
Cite this entry
symmetricals. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/symmetricals
“symmetricals.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/symmetricals. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “symmetricals,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/symmetricals.
Source: symmetricals on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.