knee breeches
Americanplural noun
Etymology
Origin of knee breeches
First recorded in 1825–35
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Early on, and briefly, waiters were unfortunately tricked out in white wigs and satin knee breeches, a la Versailles-on-the-Venice-canals.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 8, 2025
The Comédie-Française’s actors undoubtedly look good in knee breeches, but you’d be hard-pressed to know what they, or Delétang, make of the revolution based on this production.
From New York Times ● Jan. 19, 2023
John Quincy Adams was the first president to ditch knee breeches for long pants on his big day, in 1825.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 19, 2021
He was the last president to wear the powdered wig and knee breeches of an eighteenth-century gentleman and nearly the last Revolutionary in high office.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 18, 2018
This other was a venerable man with a queer-shaped cap upon his white head and wearing knee breeches and gaiters, which made the young American remember some pictures of old Continental statesmen.
From Dorothy at Oak Knowe by Raymond, Evelyn
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
