wear the pants

Idioms  

1. 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.

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Example Sentences

And she’ll likely wear the pants for just a season or two.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 15, 2025

Players can wear the pants down or wear them high to show off the special socks.

From Seattle Times • Apr. 28, 2023

He improvised a replacement line that Hughes used in the film: “When you meet your Mr. Right, make sure he knows you wear the pants in the family.”

From Washington Post • Dec. 14, 2022

“I’m loud, and I’m vulgar, and I wear the pants in the house because somebody’s got to,” Martha says with unrepressed bitterness to her husband George.

From Economist • Apr. 5, 2018

“Hey, I wear the pants in this family, so don’t you be a smarty-pants,” she said, and poked me on the shoulder.

From "Dead End in Norvelt" by Jack Gantos