knee pants

plural noun

1. knee-length pants, especially those formerly worn by boys considered too young to wear full-length trousers (often used as a term symbolizing youth).

   I haven't felt this way since I was in knee pants.

Word History and Origins

Origin of knee pants¹

First recorded in 1865–70

Example Sentences

He still wears the traditional broad black hat and knee pants of the Gur sect each Sabbath and has no television in his house.

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Like other boys, he wore knee pants and heavy shoes with brass toe tips.

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“And at first they called me a sissy because I wore knee pants — until I punched one kid in the face. Give me the Bronx any day!”

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He conducted in knee pants at the Hollywood Bowl and went on to become music director of three major American orchestras — the Cleveland Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony and New York Philharmonic.

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They had been into an adjacent farm-house and changed their clothes, and now appeared in knee pants, red stockings, and white jackets, a striking and interesting accessory to an already animated and glowing landscape.

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