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

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

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 15, 2025

Still, even Felicity was out-glammed by that night’s center of attention, Lee, who held court in Knicks-themed couture, a blue-and-orange-striped zoot suit with matching fedora and spectacles.

From Los Angeles Times • May 23, 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

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

The drape and the cut of a zoot suit showed to the best advantage if you were tall— and I was over six feet.

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