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.

---

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

---

Other Word Forms

• zoot-suiter noun

Etymology

Origin of zoot suit

1940–45, rhyming compound based on suit

Example Sentences

Decked out in a resplendent orange-and-blue-striped zoot suit symbolizing the colors of his beloved New York Knicks, Spike Lee hit the Cannes Film Festival’s red carpet in May in full boogie mode.

From Los Angeles Times

Chavarria tells the story of American fashion through a Chicano lens, creating now-distinctive oversize, sculptural silhouettes that pull from various eras of Mexican American style, from sharply angular zoot suits to blue-collar workwear.

From Los Angeles Times

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

From Los Angeles Times

If there’s mention of the Black men who originated zoot suits and also suffered and fought back during the riots, it’s rarely more than a shout-out.

From Los Angeles Times

And I think the zoot suits from “Malcolm X,” because I studied the zoot suit in great detail in all of my menswear books and I feel like I nailed it.

From Los Angeles Times