donkey jacket
- noun
- /ˈdɒŋki ˈdʒækɪt/
- UK
:
chaqueta de trabajo
- Mammy: All that fuss o'er a fella in a grey donkey jacket.
Examples
-
It was a tall fella in a grey donkey jacket.
Fiction book (1997) -
The construction worker wore a bright orange donkey jacket to protect himself from the cold.
-
In the chilly weather, I saw several workers wearing donkey jackets as they loaded the truck.
-
He put on his old donkey jacket before heading out to the building site on a rainy day.
Synonyms
∞
1.0
A short coat that reaches the waist or hips and fastens at the front
How Warm
Surface Forms
Morphology
donkey + jacket
The noun 'jacket' makes clear the item is an article of clothing, but 'donkey' (the animal) does not transparently describe the specific style, weight, or social/use connotations of the garment. The meaning 'short, heavy workingman's coat' is a dialectal/cultural sense in British English and is not directly predictable from the constituents; learners might guess a rugged or work-related jacket but would not reliably infer the exact sense without exposure.
Etymology
Donkey jacket may come from comparing hard-working people to a donkey. The rough, short jacket these workers wore became known as a 'donkey jacket', which is why it means 'a short, thick jacket worn by manual workers'.