panties, n. pl.
(ˈpæntiːz)
Also occas. pantees.
[dim. of pants n. pl.]
1. a. Men's trousers or shorts. Usu. in derog. contexts.
| 1845 Knickerbocker XXVI. 433 If your panties weren't sheeted home at the bottom, you'd out-jump a monkey. 1848 W. E. Burton Waggeries 19, I hadn't on nothin'..only a blue cotting shirt and sail-cloth pantys. Ibid. 95 I've a Colt's revolver in each pantey's pocket. 1910 Kipling Diversity of Creatures (1917) 310 The umpires, all in short panties, conferred. 1928 Weekly Dispatch 27 May 15/7 Panties for boys and skirts for girls..are being made very short. 1930 E. Pound XXX Cantos xviii. 82 And he was my gawd scared out of his panties. |
b. Short-legged or legless knickers worn by women and girls.
| 1908 M. Morgan How to dress Doll vi. 59 The under⁓garment is..easily made, for the little waist and panties are cut in one piece. 1932 New Yorker 11 June 40/1 There is a lace brassière top on a circular satin slip, and panties..are built in underneath. 1958 Times 25 Apr. 13/3 Brand new ex-Wren officers' silk/wool panties. 1969 M. Pei Words in Sheep's Clothing (1970) v. 34 ‘Panties’..short, abbreviated pants worn by women and children (men, as everyone knows, wear shorts, not panties). 1972 F. Warner Maquettes 39 Bra and panties. 1976 J. Crosby Snake (1977) xxxv. 216 She..picked up her panties, and slipped them on. After that the sweater, the skirt, stockings, and shoes. |
c. Also
transf. and
fig.| 1909 Sat. Even. Post 24 Apr. 15/3 New York..would be inhabited by cow-persons in décolleté leather panties. 1936 L. C. Douglas White Banners ii. 42 There won't be any French chops with pink panties and a little bite of meat about the size of a peppermint lozenge. 1949 Sat. Even. Post 26 Mar. 35/2 Large bottles in woven straw panties stood on the checked table top. |
2. sing., as
pantie,
panty.
= sense 1 b above. Also
attrib. orig. U.S.| 1932 New Yorker 11 June 28 (Advt.), If ever a garment could outwit that old ogre depression, it's the pantie in this picture... It is made of celanese. 1939 Reader's Digest May 107/2 There is nothing so mournful as a pantie manufacturer who cannot get space in the pantie section [of the garment-making area of New York City]. 1951 C. W. & P. Cunnington Hist. Underclothes 246 For sports, pantie trunks and pantie briefs. 1960 Harper's Bazaar Apr. 56/1 Striped pantie; boned perforated foam bra. 1961 New Yorker 2 Dec. 48 Rogers places you there in the briefest baby doll and matching panty. 1970 Focus June 11/3 No apparent dye loss when washed, but pantie part shrank an inch all round. |
3. Comb. of
pantee,
panti,
pantie,
panty.
a. In names of women's undergarments combining the function of panties with that of some other undergarment, as
panty-belt,
panty-blouse,
panty-brassière,
panty-girdle,
panty-hose,
panty-stockings,
panty-tights.
| 1957 A. Adburgham in Punch 27 Mar. 419/1 How pert the little pantie-belt, blue-spotted, with its blue-spotted suspenders to match. 1961 S. Price Just for Record iii. 26 The sort of birds I lie me down with..shimmy out of their pantie-belts. |
| 1971 Guardian 24 Aug. 9/1 Pantie-blouses are..the newest thing in all-in-one garments. |
| 1925 Ladies' Home Jrnl. May 87/3 Panty-brassiere, $12. |
| 1941 Hermer & May Havana Mañana 43 We recommend panty-girdles of mesh elastic and net or lace bras. 1946 [see Lastex]. 1961 She Feb. 42 Au Fait's panty girdle..evenly supports tummy, behind, hips and thighs. 1961 Housewife Apr. 103/1 Wear a strong pantie-girdle—not a roll-on. 1968 J. Ironside Fashion Alphabet 71 Panti-girdle, lightly elasticated briefs, exercising some control over bulges. 1972 E. T. Renbourn Materials & Clothing in Health & Dis. xix. 387 The pantie-girdle syndrome has crept into the recent literature. Here, marked constriction of the circulation of the upper thigh..leads to aching legs and..swelling ankles. 1972 J. Wambaugh Blue Knight (1973) vii. 98 A micro-mini that showed her red-flowered panty girdle when she sat down. |
| 1963 N.Y. Times 22 Dec. 19 Our exclusive panti-hose... She'll enjoy the comfort and freedom of..panty tops and micromesh stockings, all in one. No garters, no seams. 1967 Vogue 15 Oct. 16 (Advt.), For 12/11 you can treat yourself to Panti⁓hose seam tights. 1970 Focus June 9/2 Invented ten years ago, tights (or pantie-hose) gained ground with the advent of the mini-skirt in 1968. 1970 Toronto Daily Star 24 Sept. 38/8 (Advt.), The first quality panty hose at a sensible price. 1972 G. V. Higgins Friends E. Coyle xviii. 108 She don't own no pants... Wears them panty hose. 1975 Publishers Weekly 1 Dec. 67/2 The type of wan, lightweight heroine who can't support her own pantyhose let alone a mystery novel. 1976 M. Spark Takeover iv. 41 She pulled, through her dress, at the top of her panty⁓hose, setting herself to rights like a schoolgirl. |
| 1966 P. O'Donnell Sabre-Tooth vii. 104 The combined pantie⁓stockings she always wore. 1968 S. E. Ellacott Everyday Things in Eng. 1914–1968 iv. 69 For some years previously [to 1966], during cold weather, women had worn ‘tights’ (pantee stockings), and these were now developed in sheer nylon for everyday wear with mini-skirts. 1968 Vogue 15 Apr. 92 Pantie-stockings,..3 gns. 1971 Sunday Nation (Nairobi) 11 Apr. 37/1 (Advt.), Stockings, Panty⁓stockings..Tights. 1971 Guardian 24 Aug. 9/1 Stocking tights and pantie stockings. |
| 1970 Guardian Weekly 11 Apr. 14 ‘Sorry,’ the man in overalls said. ‘We're right out of them. What about a pair of panti-tights?’ 1970 G. F. Newman Sir, You Bastard viii. 207 Her lunch-break dash to Selfridges for pantie-tights, or whatever. |
b. spec. panty leg, the leg part of a pair of panties; (with hyphen)
attrib., having such legs;
panty raid U.S., a prank involving the raiding of women's rooms for trophies of underwear; also
transf. or
fig.;
panty-waist U.S., (
a) a sissy, a coward; used
attrib., effeminate, weak; (
b) (
rare) a garment,
usu. for children, consisting of panties attached to a bodice.
| 1908 M. Morgan How to dress Doll vi. 61 Face the arm⁓holes, neck and panty legs with a narrow facing. 1963 New Yorker 8 June 62 Favorite panty-leg bathing suit. 1966 Time 2 Dec. 53 Gold and silver pantyleg stockings..are selling so fast stores can't keep them in stock. |
| 1952 Stars & Stripes (Pacific ed.) 21 May 2/3 A wild wave of panty raids swept a dozen college campuses Monday night... The [Univ. of] Colorado raid was staged by 1500 male students intent on seizing intimate trophies of lingerie. Ibid. 2/5 More than 1000 Northwestern university male students Monday went on a gleeful ‘panty raid’, stealing ‘all the underwear in sight’ and carrying a bewildered police sergeant on their shoulders. 1953 Newsweek 11 May 94/1 Traditionally, American undergraduates seem to regard the coming of spring as the rightful time to raise various kinds of hell. Be it goldfish eating, panty raids, or general disturbance of the town peace, boys will be boys, and, more recently, girls will be girls. 1957 Turner & Killian Collective Behavior 208 The fad may also exist as a permission to act contrary to the folk⁓ways and mores, as in the example of college ‘panty raids’. 1968 Listener 3 Oct. 428/2 ‘I think we should organise a political panty raid.’ There is little organised opposition to the radicals from other students, although one group did deplore ‘holding members of the administration captive and burning irreplaceable files of professors who are unsympathetic.’ |
| 1936 Amer. Speech XI. 280/1 Panty⁓waist, a sissy. 1937 Sun (Baltimore) 28 Apr. 6 (Advt.), Now Mike don't be calling me a panty waist. 1939 C. Morley Kitty Foyle 15 Some of my pantywaists and nightgowns. 1942 Short Guide Gt. Brit. (U.S. War Dept.) 5 The English language didn't spread across the oceans and over the mountains and jungles and swamps of the world because these people were panty-waists. 1951 M. McLuhan Mech. Bride (1967) 125/1 No panty-waist humanitarianism here. 1952 N. Spain in C. Asquith Second Ghost Bk. 33, I should have said that I was pretty tough... I didn't do too badly in the War. I was in the Marines and they don't encourage panty waists in the Marines. 1971 ‘A. Burgess’ MF x. 116 Some goddam British poet with one of these pantiwaist names, like Vere de Vere. 1971 H. A. Smith View from Chivo i. 7 He is a pantywaist kind of fellow, very dainty about things. 1975 Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 30 July 5/3 When they [sc. the police] do lay hands on the culprits and get them to the courtroom they are let down by our pantywaist judges. |
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panty line n. the top or (
esp.) bottom edge of a woman's underwear, typically when visible through another layer of clothing;
usu. in
visible panty line (
cf. VPL n. at
V n. Additions).
| 1977 ‘W. Allen’ & M. Brickman Annie Hall in Four Films Woody Allen (1982) 89 Rob. The one with the V.P.L. Alvy. V.P.L.? Rob. Visible *panty line. Max, she is gorgeous. 1989J. Burchill Phantom Nympho in Sex & Sensibility (1992) 36 She's back. I really thought I'd seen the back of her, visible pantyline and all. 1998 R. Ray Certain Age 103, I could see her pantyline through her skirt. |
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panty liner n. a small sanitary protection pad, thinner and less absorbent than a sanitary towel, often worn by non-menstruating women for everyday hygiene.
| 1983 Washington Post (Nexis) 8 Feb. d7 Always will be marketed in maxi-pad, mini-pad and *panty-liner forms. 1992 Retail World (Sydney) 11 May 20/7 Panty liners make up 12 per cent of the total fempro market. 1998 A. Warner Sopranos 91 She'd sleep in her shirt, a panty-liner keeping her knickers okay, the digital alarm clutched to her chest. |