wear the pants
Exercise controlling authority in a household, as in Grandma wears the pants at our house. This idiom, generally applied to women and dating from the mid-1500s, a time when they wore only skirts, equates pants with an authoritative and properly masculine role. Originally put as wear the breeches, it remains in use despite current fashions.
QUIZZES
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Question 1 of 9
You may have read the word "simmer" in a recipe or two, but what does it really mean?
Words nearby wear the pants
wear off, wear one's heart on one's sleeve, wear-out, wear out one's welcome, wearproof, wear the pants, wear thin, wear two hats, wear well, weary, weasand
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.