knickers

1. (colloquial, now US, rare) Knickerbockers.Examples: "Students in the University were not permitted to keep cars, and the men – hatless, in knickers and bright pull-overs – looked down upon the town boys who wore hats cupped rigidly upon pomaded heads […]."; "He was a student at Notre Dame, a robust Joe-College kind of kid, husky and tall and always dressed in plus-four knickers."UScolloquialpluralplural-onlyrare

2. (UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) Women's underpants.Examples: "The debate here is not over whether raising £26,000 (and counting) for our troops is a wonderful thing – it unarguably is – but over whether, whenever times are tough and money must be found, our default reaction as women should be to take off our knickers to help out?"CommonwealthIrelandUKpluralplural-only