birthday suit

American  

noun

1. bare skin; nakedness.

   They were sunbathing in their birthday suits.

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birthday suit British  

noun

1. informal a state of total nakedness, as at birth

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birthday suit Cultural  

1. To be “in one's birthday suit” is to be completely naked (as people are at birth).

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birthday suit Idioms  

1. Nakedness, as in The doorbell rang, and here I was in my birthday suit. In 18th-century Britain this term originally referred to the clothes one wore on the king's birthday. Later it was jocularly transferred to bare skin, alluding to the condition of a newborn baby.

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Etymology

Origin of birthday suit

First recorded in 1745–55

Example Sentences

But once lined with hundred-dollar bills, the pockets of my birthday suit now jingle with grimy pennies and nickels.

From Salon • Feb. 10, 2014

The confetti that falls is black and the animal costumes have gone, and Coyne forgoes his birthday suit – worn during a recent US TV appearance – for an electric-blue jacket and, he complains, too-tight trousers.

From The Guardian • May 22, 2013

Unless I wanted to sign a five-year indenturement contract with some corporation, and that was about as appealing to me as rolling around in broken glass in my birthday suit.

From "Ready Player One: A Novel" by Ernest Cline

As Pope writes: Or when from Court a birthday suit bestowed, Sinks the lost actor in the tawdry load.

From A Book of the Play Studies and Illustrations of Histrionic Story, Life, and Character by Cook, Dutton

Such is the shout, the long-applauding note, 330 At Quin's high plume, or Oldfield's petticoat; Or when from court a birthday suit bestow'd, Sinks the lost actor in the tawdry load.

From The Poetical Works of Alexander Pope, Volume 1 by Gilfillan, George