Meaning of open-kneed breeches | Babel Free

Definitions

Wide-legged breeches ending below the knee.

historical, plural, plural-only

Examples

“I had a short Jacket of Goat-Skin, the Skirts coming down to about the middle of my Thighs; and a pair of open-knee’d breeches of the same; the Breeches were made of the Skin of an old He-Goat, whose Hair hung down such a Length on either Side, that like⟳ Pantaloons it reach’d to the middle of my Legs […]”

“1719, William Mountfort, Greenwich-Park; A Comedy, London: G. Strahan & W. Mears, Act I, Scene 1, If the Times are alter’d with the Wives, so they are with the Husbands, since they wore slash Doublets, short Cloaks, and open⟳ knee’d Breeches, with their own⟳ thin lank Hair, that look’d liek the Fringe of a Blanket, or the Strings of a Bunch of Leeks; you can now wear⟳ the best Fashion and richest Cloaths, Swords upon Occasion […]”

“1782, Gentleman’s Magazine, September, 1782, Letter signed ‘A.B.,’ p. 434, There is a remarkable painting of a galante of the time of Edward IV, in the Hungerford chapel in the cathedral of Salisbury […] in which the hose is continued from the shoe to the waist without any sign⟳ of gartering at the knee, all of one piece. In the mutability of garbs, which continued to the reign of James I, slops, which may be considered as open-kneed breeches, soon followed.”

“1835, Charles Joseph Latrobe, The Rambler in North America: 1832-1833, London: R.B. Seeley et al., Volume 2, Letter 12, p. 222, Here comes a ship load⟳ of Irish. They land⟳ upon the wharfs of New York in rags and open-knee’d breeches, with their raw looks and bare necks; they flourish their cudgels, throw⟳ up their torn hats and cry⟳,—‘hurrah for Gineral Jackson!’”

CEFR level