dutchman's breeches
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.81 in modern English
32
Scrabble Score
17
Letters
3
Syllables
12
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A plant of the species Dicentra cucullaria, native to eastern North America and the Columbia River basin.
noun
A plant of the species Lamprocapnos spectabilis, formerly Dicentra spectabilis, similar to D. cucullaria, but red or pink.
noun
Something proverbially blue, used in phrases relating to a clear blue sky, as in "enough blue sky to make [or patch] a Dutchman's breeches", etc.
Colloquial
noun
Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see Dutchman, -'s, breeches.
Example Sentences
- "A Dutchman's breeches, in full taste, / Two contrasted extremes divide; / Buttons, like platters, at the waist, / And studs, like peas, along the side."
- "We have all heard it said of the Dutchman's breeches that they could be made to contain whatever objects could be forced through the pocket apertures, and the number of things that the Dutchman could stow away in the baggy recesses of his nether garments has always been a source of wonder to the foreigner."
- "Up went the jib and then the mainsail. Being home-made, they hung baggy as a Dutchman's breeches, but when I cast off the mooring lines the breeze blew out the wrinkles and everything was fine."
Etymology
In the case of the plants, named because their flower petals resemble baggy pants worn by Dutch settlers to North America (compare slops, knickerbockers).