long johns
long johns noun: a full-length undergarment, worn on the bottom half of the body, or two-piece, to keep the wearer warm in cold weather. Also the plural of long john.
Noun (1)
long johns pl (plural only, attributive long-john or long john)
- A full-length undergarment, worn on the bottom half of the body, or two-piece, to keep the wearer warm in cold weather.
- Synonyms:
- long underwear, thermal underwear, union suit
Noun (2) capitalized: Long Johns
Long Johns
- plural of Long John
Also used as
long johns is also the plural of long john.
Synonyms of long johns
Forms of long johns
| attributive | long-john |
|---|---|
| attributive | long john |
| alternative form | long-johns |
| alternative form | longjohns |
Origin of long johns
Reputedly named after American heavyweight boxer John L. Sullivan (1858–1918); also posed as an approximation of French longues jambes (“long legs”); see Wikipedia.
See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.
Questions about long johns
- What does long johns mean?
- Long johns means a full-length undergarment, worn on the bottom half of the body, or two-piece, to keep the wearer warm in cold weather.
- What part of speech is long johns?
- Long johns is a noun.
Words near long johns in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: long johns (page history and authors); Long Johns (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)-Vealhurl-long johns.wav.
Cite this entry: “long johns.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/long_johns. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.