zoot suit

American  

[zoot] / zut /

noun

1. a man's suit with baggy, tight-cuffed, sometimes high-waisted trousers and an oversized jacket with exaggeratedly broad, padded shoulders and wide lapels, often worn with suspenders and a long watch chain and first popularized in the early 1940s.

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zoot suit British  

/ zuːt /

noun

1. slang a man's suit consisting of baggy trousers with very tapered bottoms and a long jacket with wide padded shoulders, popular esp in the US in the 1940s

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Other Word Forms

• zoot-suiter
  noun

Etymology

Origin of zoot suit

1940–45, rhyming compound based on suit

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

zoot suit

What’s the story with the lime green zoot suit?

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 15, 2025

Elsewhere, we check in on how a freshly liberated Mitch McConnell is putting on his zoot suit and spats and living it up a little.

From Slate ● Apr. 27, 2024

Artist John M. Valadez, who came of age in Boyle Heights in the 1950s and ’60s, says that even after the zoot suit had disappeared, “the pants were still a thing.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 13, 2023

The origin story of the zoot suit is one of a few facts and a whole lot of lore.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 13, 2023

He even wore a wild zoot suit, used a heavy grease in his hair to make it look like a conk, and he wore the knob-toed shoes, the long, swinging chain— everything.

From "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" by Alex Malcolm X;Hailey