Word.ws English Dictionary

knickerbocker

US/ˈnɪkɚbɑkɚ/

knickerbocker noun: of or relating to knickerbockers.

Noun (1)

knickerbocker (uncountable)

  1. (archaic, attributive) Of or relating to knickerbockers.
    • ...with a rudimentary beard to set it off, a dirty shirt, a rifle, a coat over my arm, and half a grouse in my knickerbocker pocket.1892, The Twentieth Century
    • His knickerbocker days are gone,
      His last long stockings laid away:
      My baby has his trousers on, —
      My boy becomes a man to-day.1905, Daniel Leavens Cady, Stray Breaths of North East Song
  2. A linsey-woolsey fabric with a rough knotted surface on the right side, formerly used for women's dresses.

Noun (2) capitalized: Knickerbocker

Knickerbocker (plural Knickerbockers)

  1. A surname from Dutch.
  2. (archaic, historical) A New Yorker, particularly a scion of its old Dutch families
  3. (uncommon) A player for the New York Knicks
  4. (historical) A player for the New York Knickerbockers

Forms of knickerbocker

pluralKnickerbockers

Origin of knickerbocker

See knickerbockers.

From Diedrich Knickerbocker, the pseudonym adopted by Washington Irving for his 1809 A History of New York, probably for the Knickerbackers of Schaghticoke, New York, descended from the Dutch immigrant Harmen Jansen van Bommel(l), who went variously by the names van Wy(y)e, van Wyekycback(e), Kinnekerbacker, Knickelbacker, Knickerbacker, Kinckerbacker, Nyckbacker, and Kynckbacker. The surname is of uncertain etymology, being variously explained as a corruption of Wyekycback, Dutch knacker (“cracker”) + German Bäcker, Dutch bakker (“baker”), or Dutch knicker (“marble (toy)”) + German Bäcker, Dutch bakker.

Words formed from knickerbocker

Phrases with knickerbocker

Questions about knickerbocker

What does knickerbocker mean?
Knickerbocker means of or relating to knickerbockers.
What part of speech is knickerbocker?
Knickerbocker is a noun.
How do you pronounce knickerbocker?
Knickerbocker is pronounced /ˈnɪkɚbɑkɚ/ (US).
What is the plural of knickerbocker?
The plural of knickerbocker is Knickerbockers.

Words near knickerbocker in the dictionary

  1. knicked
  2. knicked off
  3. knicker
  4. knicker drawer
  5. knicker drawers
  6. knickerbocker
  7. knickerbocker glories
  8. knickerbocker glory
  9. knickerbockered
  10. knickerbockers
  11. knickered

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: knickerbocker (page history and authors); Knickerbocker (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.

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