smallclothes

smallclothes

English

Etymology

small +‎ clothes

Noun

smallclothes pl (plural only)

1. Knee-length breeches, worn especially in the 18th century.
   • 1841, Leigh Hunt, Essays:

     Even fashions, otherwise convenient, as the trousers that have so long taken place of smallclothes, often perhaps owe their continuance to some general defect . . .

2. (Britain, archaic) Underwear and other small items of clothing.
   • 2000, George R. R. Martin, A Storm of Swords: A Song of Fire and Ice, →ISBN, p. 701 (Google preview):

     One hand slid up her thigh and underneath her smallclothes.

   • 2007 April 10, Tobias Hill, "School Stories," The Guardian (UK) (retrieved 17 May 2014):

     Are red socks a secret handshake, a mark of Etonhood, of an allegiance to the place both claimed and disclaimed? And having seen one pair I'm noticing them all over the place, a conspiracy of smallclothes.