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hot pants

hot pants

10 3.4
Very short tight shorts worn by women as outer clothing
  • noun
  • /hɑt pænts/
  • Archaic
translation icon : minishorts
  • Dorrie viewed the whole episode with a rather jaundiced eye, no doubt the result of the polyester hot pants the color of ripe squash that her mother sported in the second round of judging.
  • wear hot pants
  • hot pants and miniskirts
  • hot pants and fishnet

He'd actually changed his clothes into like like tennis sneakers, like hot pants and like a skimpy top.

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Examples

  • We had girls on the flatbed truck in hot pants giving out Flyers for the concert.

  • Hayden sported denim hot pants and Ugg boots.

    Blog text (15)
  • Have you seen anyone wearing hot pants in the last five years?

  • Perhaps there was something to be said for wearing hot pants.

    Fiction book (1998)
  • A lot of bars have beer girls that show up wearing hot pants and try to get customers to try new products.

    Blog text (34)
  • Do you think that quarterback is lookin' fine in those hot pants?

  • An aging blonde in leather hot pants is dancing by herself at the jukebox.

    Fiction book (1995)
  • I had on white hot pants, a chiffon blouse, a ponytail.

  • Several wore colorful bustiers with matching hot pants and shiny silver or red platform shoes with pointy heels.

    Fiction book (1999)
  • On a hot summer day, she wore her favorite hot pants to stay cool and stylish.

Synonyms

short pants
vshot pants
5 1.0

Trousers ending above the knee that people wear in warm weather or for sports

are much shorter and tighter and mainly worn by women

Antonyms

6 1.0

Trousers that reach the feet

How Short

hot pants
  • Archaic
10 3.4
shorts
1 1.0

Surface Forms

hot pants singular
hot pants plural

Morphology

hot + pant

The compound is partly compositional: a learner who knows 'hot' (sexually attractive) and 'pants' (garment) can infer 'pants that are considered sexy.' However, the conventionalized sense specifically denotes very short, tight-fitting women's shorts (not just any 'sexy' trousers), so the precise referent (length/tightness) is lexicalized and not fully predictable from the parts.

Etymology

Hot pants came from 1960s and 1970s fashion when designers made very short, tight shorts that showed off the legs. People called them hot pants because hot meant 'sexy' or very fashionable and pants simply meant shorts, so the name came to mean 'very short, tight-fitting shorts'.