Meanings
present singular third person trousers · participle present trousering · participle past trousered · past trousered
- IrelandUKinformaltransitiveTo secretively steal (an item or money) for personal use.
Barr, 34, trousered the money from the pub in Lugton, Ayrshire, between January 2016 and February 2018.
2021 September 7, “Greedy pub worker’s assets targeted after he’s convicted of £40,000 embezzlement: Graham Barr trousered over £35,000 while working at the Canny Man in Lugton”, in Daily Record1 more example
Your aunt told him to pack Upjohn's bags, and the first thing he saw when he smacked into it was the speech. He trousered it and brought it along to me.
1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XIX, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC - IrelandUKinformaltransitiveTo take and keep (something, especially money, that is not one's own); to pocket.
The whopping sum will now be up for grabs on Tuesday when punters will have another chance to trouser the lifechanging amount.
2022 July 17, “LUCKY NUMBERS Euromillions - £191million jackpot rolls over AGAIN with whopping cash prize up for grabs on Tuesday”, in The Sun4 more examples
Politicians know how to look after themselves. Derry Irvine, Blair’s old boss, trousered a pension fund worth £2.3 million after just five years as Lord Chancellor - all courtesy of the tax payer.
2010, Richard Littlejohn, Littlejohn’s Britain, page 348Andy Prendergast, national secretary of the GMB union, said: “To see the boss of Shell trouser more than £6million while bills are crippling families and countries scrabble around trying to ditch Russian gas is abhorrent.
2022 March 10, “Shell boss earns £6.3million in a year as households and motorists face cost of living crisis”, in MirrorThe founder and boss of CMC Markets is set to trouser £20million via the company’s dividend payments, even as the group’s profits and revenue fall.
2022 June 9, “CMC Market boss and House of Lords member Peter Cruddas set for bumper dividend as trading platform’s profits and revenue slide”, in thisismoney.co.ukWorse still, the driving motivation for all too many of the bosses of water companies appears to be not to improve the environment or to secure London’s water supply but rather to trouser obscene salaries and bonuses
2022 July 4, Feargal Sharkey, “Our taps could run dry and greedy bosses should be prosecuted, writes FEARGAL SHARKEY”, in Daily Mail
Synonyms & antonyms
Origin
Back-formation from trousers.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Finnish housu-, pistää liiveihinsä
- housu-of or relating to trousers
- pistää liiveihinsäto secretively steal
- pistää taskuihinsato legally remove
Polish spodnie, obławiać się
- spodnieof or relating to trousers
- obławiać sięto secretively steal
- obłowić sięto secretively steal
- kraśćto legally remove
- ukraśćto legally remove
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with trouser
All rhymes →Anagrams
Cite this entry
trouser. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/trouser
“trouser.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/trouser. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “trouser,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/trouser.
Source: trouser on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.