boxer shorts
boxer shorts noun: loose shorts worn as underwear by men.
Noun
boxer shorts pl (plural only, attributive boxer-short or boxer short)
- Loose shorts worn as underwear by men.
- The average man's wardrobe holds eight pairs of boxer shorts or briefs; the average woman's, twice as many undies.1985 April 29, New York Magazine, page 28
- In 1925, boxer shorts were unleashed on the world: loose-fitting underwear for men, featuring an elastic waistband inspired by the shorts worn by boxers. It was underwear for the inner pugilist.2018 August 9, Alan Burdick, “Science has Resolved the Question of Boxers vs. Briefs”, in The New Yorker, archived from the original on 09 Nov 2020
Forms of boxer shorts
| attributive | boxer-short |
|---|---|
| attributive | boxer short |
| alternative uncommon | boxer short |
Origin of boxer shorts
Named after the shorts worn by those who engage in boxing, as their elasticity is comparable to that of what boxers must wear for unhindered leg movement.
Words formed from boxer shorts
Questions about boxer shorts
- What does boxer shorts mean?
- Boxer shorts means loose shorts worn as underwear by men.
- What part of speech is boxer shorts?
- Boxer shorts is a noun.
Words near boxer shorts in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: boxer shorts (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-boxer shorts.wav.
Cite this entry: “boxer shorts.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/boxer_shorts. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.