pantyhose
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of pantyhose
First recorded in 1960–65
Explanation
Pantyhose are sheer tights, a garment that snugly covers your legs. It was once very common for certain jobs to require women to wear pantyhose. You might call pantyhose tights or stockings — this word is uncommon outside of the US, and it's typically used for a particularly thin, sheer hosiery with built-in underwear. Pantyhose were invented in the 1960s, replacing old fashioned knee-high stockings that were held in place with garters. The name pantyhose is a combination of panty, undergarment or underwear, and hose, which is short for hosiery.
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.
Worse, I was wearing a dress and thin pantyhose.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 20, 2026
When each bar of soap dissolves to a sliver, she collects each fragment, places them into the cut-off foot of a pair of old pantyhose, and ties it shut.
From Salon • Jul. 8, 2023
Mosby said her office recently tested Lee’s skirt, pantyhose, jacket and shoes for DNA using new technology that can detect DNA left behind when someone touches a surface.
From Washington Post • Oct. 11, 2022
It was where Senga Nengudi debuted her sculptures of stretched-out pantyhose weighted with sand, and where Howardena Pindell first showed her abstract “dot” paintings, composed of paper chads.
From New York Times • Sep. 13, 2022
She was there on her lunch break, buying discounted pantyhose in the Basement.
From "Interpreter of Maladies" by Jhumpa Lahiri
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.
