Word.ws English Dictionary

open-kneed

open-kneed adjective: having wide legs and reaching below the knees but higher than the ankles (not tied or closed at the knees).

Adjective

open-kneed

  1. (historical) Having wide legs and reaching below the knees but higher than the ankles (not tied or closed at the knees).
    • The coat-sleeves were gloriously cut and slashed, small buttons on the coat, a little bigger than pease; the pockets about a handful below the knees, the breeches were open-kneed, a great deal wider than a Flanderkin’s trousers, hung all around with abundance of little ribbons.1703, Politica (pseudonym), The Levellers: A Dialogue between Two Young Ladies, concerning Matrimony, London: J. How, in The Harleian Miscellany, London: Robert Dutton, 1811, Volume 12, p. 213
    • He had on no Cloaths, but a Seaman’s Wastcoat, a Pair of open-knee’d Linnen Drawers, and a blew Linnen Shirt; but nothing to direct me so much as to guess what Nation he was of […]1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC, page 223

Phrases with open-kneed

Questions about open-kneed

What does open-kneed mean?
Open-kneed means having wide legs and reaching below the knees but higher than the ankles (not tied or closed at the knees).
What part of speech is open-kneed?
Open-kneed is an adjective.

Words near open-kneed in the dictionary

  1. open-heart surgery
  2. open-hearted
  3. open-heartedly
  4. open-heartedness
  5. open-hearth
  6. open-kneed
  7. open-kneed breeches
  8. open-loop
  9. open-mid
  10. open-minded
  11. open-mindedly

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: open-kneed (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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