pants

pants¹ S3 [pænts] n [plural]

[Date: 1800-1900; Origin: pantaloons]

1.) especially AmE a piece of clothing that covers you from your waist to your feet and has a separate part for each leg

British Equivalent: trousers

▪ She was wearing dark blue pants and a white sweater.

2.) BrE a piece of underwear that covers the area between your waist and the top of your legs

American Equivalent: underpants

→↑knickers, briefs ↑briefs, boxer shorts ↑boxer shorts

3.) bore/scare etc the pants off sb

informal spoken to make someone feel very bored, very frightened etc

▪ She always bores the pants off me.

4.) beat the pants off sb

AmE spoken to defeat someone very easily in a game or competition

= ↑thrash

5.) sb puts his pants on one leg at a time

AmE spoken used to say that someone is just like everyone else

▪ Go on, ask him for his autograph - he puts his pants on one leg at a time just like you do.

6.) (since sb was) in short pants

BrE informal since someone was a very young boy

▪ I've known Eric since he was in short pants.

→do sth by the seat of your pants at ↑seat¹ (10)

→catch sb with their pants down at ↑catch¹ (6)

→wear the pants/trousers at ↑wear¹ (7)

pants ²

pants² adj [not before noun] BrE spoken informal

very bad

▪ The concert was pants.