bellbottom pants
- noun
- /ˈbɛlˌbɑtəm pænts/
- Archaic
:
pantalones de campana
- In the 1970s, many people wore bellbottom pants to parties and concerts.
Examples
-
The fashion show featured models showcasing colorful bellbottom pants from the retro collection.
-
He found a vintage jacket that matched his favorite pair of bellbottom pants.
-
She still wear bellbottom pants and smokes dope during the day.
Synonyms
3
5.5
Trousers with legs that get wider from the knee down, often worn in the 1960s and 1970s
Trousers with legs that become very wide below the knee
Antonyms
How Flared
- Archaic
- UK
12
2.1
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'trousers with legs that widen from the knee downward' is directly compositional: 'bellbottom' describes the widening leg shape and 'pants' names the garment. This is a literal, descriptive noun phrase following normal modifier+noun patterns (cross-linguistically common), so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily understand it.
Etymology
Bellbottom pants come from sailors' trousers that had a very wide lower leg which looked like a bell and could be rolled up over boots or taken off quickly at sea. That's why the name points to a wide bottom of the leg, and today it means wide-legged trousers often seen in 1960s and 1970s 'fashion'.