knee-breeches

English

Alternative forms

• knee breeches

Etymology

knee +‎ breeches

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˌniːˈbɹɪtʃɪz/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌniˈbɹɪtʃəz/
• Rhymes: -ɪtʃɪz

Noun

knee-breeches pl (plural only)

1. Breeches reaching down to or just below the knee.
   • 1918, Caradoc Evans, “The Talent Thou Gavest”, in My People: Stories of the Peasantry of West Wales, New York: Boni and Liveright, page 68:

     This Eben did every day till he grew out of knee-breeches into long corduroy trousers.

   • 1938 April, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter I, in Homage to Catalonia, London: Secker & Warburg, →OCLC:

     Practically everyone in the army wore corduroy knee-breeches, but there the uniformity ended.

   • 1967, Roland Oliver, Anthony Atmore, chapter 16, in Africa Since 1800, Cambridge University Press, published 2005, page 225:

     All over British Africa, speakers in their traditional wigs and knee-breeches presided over the rectangular debating chambers of the Westminster model, in which ‘government’ and ‘opposition’ sat facing each other.

   • 1996, Harry Mulisch with translated by Paul Vincent, chapter 63, in The Discovery of Heaven, Penguin, section 4:

     Orthodox Jews, in knee-breeches, with round hats and ringlets down their cheeks, were indulging in strange jerking movements, like puppets, while reading books […]