knickerbocker meaning (archaic): definition

knickerbocker

nounalso spelled Knickerbocker

Etymology See knickerbockers.

Archaic, As a modifier Of or relating to knickerbockers.

...with a rudimentary beard to set it off, a dirty shirt, a rifle, a coat over my arm, and half a grouse in my knickerbocker pocket.1892, The Twentieth Century:
His knickerbocker days are gone, His last long stockings laid away: My baby has his trousers on, — My boy becomes a man to-day.1905, Daniel Leavens Cady, Stray Breaths of North East Song:

A linsey-woolsey fabric with a rough knotted surface on the right side, formerly used for women's dresses.

Derived terms: knickerbockered, knickerbocker glory

Knickerbocker

noun

US /ˈnɪkɚbɑkɚ/

Etymology

From Diedrich Knickerbocker, the pseudonym adopted by Washington Irving for his 1809 A History of New York, probably for the Knickerbackers of Schaghticoke, New York, descended from the Dutch immigrant Harmen Jansen van Bommel(l), who went variously by the names van Wy(y)e, van Wyekycback(e), Kinnekerbacker, Knickelbacker, Knickerbacker, Kinckerbacker, Nyckbacker, and Kynckbacker. The surname is of uncertain etymology, being variously explained as a corruption of Wyekycback, Dutch knacker (“cracker”) + German Bäcker, Dutch bakker (“baker”), or Dutch knicker (“marble (toy)”) + German Bäcker, Dutch bakker.

A surname from Dutch.

Archaic, Historical A New Yorker, particularly a scion of its old Dutch families

Ball games, Basketball, Games, Hobbies, Lifestyle, Sports Uncommon A player for the New York Knicks

Ball games, Baseball, Games, Hobbies, Lifestyle, Sports Historical A player for the New York Knickerbockers

Derived terms: Father Knickerbocker, Knickerbocker Glory, knickerbocker glory, Knickerbockers, knickerbockers, knickers