trousers
Americannoun
-
Also called pants. Sometimes a usually loose-fitting outer garment for the lower part of the body, having individual leg portions that reach typically to the ankle but sometimes to any of various other points from the upper leg down.
plural noun
-
a garment shaped to cover the body from the waist to the ankles or knees with separate tube-shaped sections for both legs
-
US equivalent: wear the pants. informal to have control, esp in a marriage
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of trousers
1585–95; trouse (variant of trews ) + (draw)ers (in the sense “undergarment with legs”)
Compare meaning
How does trousers compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
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.
The designs, including silky dresses and billowing space-age black trousers like those worn by rock star David Bowie in the 1970s, were carefully fitted to the robots' skeletal frames.
From Barron's • May 29, 2026
Strolling alongside her father in front of a towering intercontinental ballistic missile, she wore black trousers and a white padded jacket with her long hair tied back.
From BBC • May 5, 2026
Fresh water was extremely scarce, so none of the group could wash their clothes a single time during their six-month stay—the cotton trousers they wore had hardened into leg armor by the time they left.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 13, 2026
After the show, we grabbed a few minutes with the 71-year-old rock star, who wore a beaded vest and tight silver-and-black trousers and sipped from a red plastic cup.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 11, 2026
There was a first-rate shirt, a pair of trousers that looked brand-new, knitted socks, and storebought suspenders that must have been bought out of Aunt Pretty’s pin money.
From "The Seven Wonders of Sassafras Springs" by Betty G. Birney
![]()
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.