bloomers
nounEtymology Named after American women's-rights activist Amelia Bloomer (1818–1894).
1
Dated Any of several forms of women’s divided garment for the lower body.
- Fanny, knowing this, had made up her mind to go straight to Horn & Udell. Now, Horn & Udell are responsible for the bloomers your small daughter wears under her play frock, in place of the troublesome and extravagant petticoat of the old days.1917, Edna Ferber, Fanny Herself:
- Moreover, the family realized perfectly that Alix would have clipped her thick hair, and taken to bloomers or knickerbockers outright, […]c. 1920, Kathleen Thompson Norris, Sisters:
3 more examples
- Yet so radioactive were her nerves[…] that she was more energetic than any of the hulking young women who, with calves bulging in heavy-ribbed woolen stockings beneath decorous blue serge bloomers, thuddingly galloped across the floor of the “gym” in practise for the Blodgett Ladies' Basket-Ball Team.1920, Sinclair Lewis, chapter I, in Main Street: The Story of Carol Kennicott, New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace and Howe, →OCLC:
- Ladies’ grey flannelette bloomers, three shillings a pair, astonishing bargain. Plain and loved, loved for ever, they say.1922 February, James Joyce, Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC:
- But the truth was, her pantaloons came down to her ankles, and when she got the leg of one caught in a twig, she nearly fainted [...] "If you will be in these sort of adventures, you should wear bloomers."1936, Norman Lindsay, The Flyaway Highway, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 19:
2
Informal Women’s underpants with short legs; knickers or drawers.
- Related terms
- Bloomerism, pantalettes