budgie smugglers
budgie smugglers noun: a style of tightfitting men's swimming costume cut like underwear briefs that covers the buttocks and groin but not the legs and reveals the bulge of the genitals; especially worn in surf lifesaving and in swimming races. Also the plural of budgie smuggler.
Noun
budgie smugglers pl (plural only)
- A style of tightfitting men's swimming costume cut like underwear briefs that covers the buttocks and groin but not the legs and reveals the bulge of the genitals; especially worn in surf lifesaving and in swimming races.
- Roughly, the rule goes: if you have just swum, are planning to swim soon or are reasonably proximate to a place where others are swimming, then your budgie smugglers are perfectly acceptable.2006 July 9, Annabel Crabb, “UK learns rules of Texas hold 'em”, in The Sydney Morning Herald
- "Mr Baillieu has popped out of the water in his budgie-smugglers, but he doesn't reckon that climate change is a problem," Garrett scoffed. "I mean, give me a break."2006 November 23, Stuart Rintoul, “Bracks's walk was on the wild side”, in The Australian
- Synonyms:
- banana hammock, bikini, cock jocks, competition briefs, dick pointers, dick togs, nut huggers, posing briefs, sluggos, racer bathers
Also used as
budgie smugglers is also the plural of budgie smuggler.
Examples of budgie smugglers in a sentence
- “If you think that men in budgie smugglers don’t look good, well all the blokes in this race still have it and they looked great,” she joked.2012 January 11, Amy Findlay, “Awesome Ironman!”, in Milton Ulladulla Times:
- A MAN has been fined and banned from recreational fishing in Victoria after confusing his budgie smugglers for abalone smugglers.2012 January 12, Kate Starke, “Smuggler hid illegal abalone in underpants”, in Herald Sun:
- Next, on with his favourite budgie smugglers.2023 April 21, John Crace, “Psycho goes down raging: the liberal wokerati finally get to Raab”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
Synonyms of budgie smugglers
- banana hammock
- bikini
- cock jocks
- competition briefs
- dick pointers
- dick togs
- nut huggers
- posing briefs
- sluggos
- racer bathers
5 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Origin of budgie smugglers
A jocular reference to a man's tight-fitting swimming costume or swimsuit appearing as if he has a budgerigar concealed inside it, i.e. his bulging genitals.
Questions about budgie smugglers
- What does budgie smugglers mean?
- Budgie smugglers means a style of tightfitting men's swimming costume cut like underwear briefs that covers the buttocks and groin but not the legs and reveals the bulge of the genitals; especially worn in surf lifesaving and in swimming races.
- How do you use budgie smugglers in a sentence?
- “If you think that men in budgie smugglers don’t look good, well all the blokes in this race still have it and they looked great,” she joked.
- What part of speech is budgie smugglers?
- Budgie smugglers is a noun.
Words near budgie smugglers in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: budgie smugglers (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: EN-AU ck1 budgie smugglers.ogg.
Cite this entry: “budgie smugglers.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/budgie_smugglers. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.