wear the trousers

wear the trousers

English

Verb

wear the trousers (third-person singular simple present wears the trousers, present participle wearing the trousers, simple past wore the trousers, past participle worn the trousers)

1. (Britain, idiomatic) (typically of a woman) To be the dominant partner in a relationship.

   Synonyms: rule the roost, wear the breeches, (US) wear the pants

   • 1987, Martin L. Gore (lyrics and music), “Never Let Me Down Again”, in Music for the Masses, performed by Depeche Mode:

     As long as I remember who's wearing the trousers / I hope he never lets me down again

   • 1988, John Rowan, Windy Dryden, Innovative Therapy in Britain:

     His mother wore the trousers, and father, a gentle man who worked in local government, was not ambitious enough for her.

2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see wear,‎ trouser.

Translations

to be the dominant partner

Arabic: please add this translation if you can Armenian: տան գլուխը լինել (tan gluxə linel) Catalan: portar els pantalons, tenir la paella pel mànec Chinese: Mandarin: 掌权 (zh), 当家 (zh) Czech: rozhodovat (cs) impf, nosit kalhoty impf (uncommon) Danish: have bukserne på Dutch: de broek aanhebben Finnish: määrätä (fi), näyttää kaapin paikka French: porter la culotte (fr), porter le pantalon German: die Hosen anhaben (de) Hindi: please add this translation if you can Hungarian: viseli a nadrágot Italian: please add this translation if you can Japanese: please add this translation if you can Korean: please add this translation if you can Norwegian: Bokmål: ha buksene på Portuguese: mandar na casa Romanian: purta pantalonii, fi cocoș în casă, fi capul familiei Russian: верхово́дить в до́ме (verxovóditʹ v dóme), быть в до́ме хозя́ином (bytʹ v dóme xozjáinom) Spanish: llevar los pantalones Vietnamese: please add this translation if you can

See also

• the grey mare is the better horse