Word.ws English Dictionary

plastic pants

plastic pants noun: an undergarment worn over a diaper or nappy (or underwear) in order to prevent leakage through the fabric.

Noun

plastic pants pl (plural only)

  1. (plural, plural-only) An undergarment worn over a diaper or nappy (or underwear) in order to prevent leakage through the fabric.
    • A case in point was a make of plastic pants for babies. Our laboratory analysis indicated the fabric contained nothing that would normally be harmful or irritating. Hydrostatic pressure verified waterproofness.1949, Good Housekeeping, volume 129, International Magazine Company, page 25
    • Mentally handicapped children under five may first come to the notice of the statutory services through the health visitors who are able to arrange for the provision of such important items as plastic pants, rubber sheeting and incontinence laundry services.1978, William Alan Heaton-Ward, Left Behind: A Study of Mental Handicap, Woburn Press, →ISBN, page 118

Synonyms of plastic pants

Origin of plastic pants

From plastic + pants. Late 1940s, when polyvinyl chloride (a plastic) replaced latex as the principal material of the garment due to its lower cost. Compare earlier rubber pants.

Questions about plastic pants

What does plastic pants mean?
Plastic pants means an undergarment worn over a diaper or nappy (or underwear) in order to prevent leakage through the fabric.
What part of speech is plastic pants?
Plastic pants is a noun.

Words near plastic pants in the dictionary

  1. plastic footprints
  2. plastic money
  3. Plastic Paddies
  4. Plastic Paddy
  5. plastic panties
  6. plastic pants
  7. plastic patriotism
  8. plastic pig
  9. plastic pigs
  10. plastic plod
  11. plastic plods

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: plastic pants (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-plastic pants.wav.

Cite this entry: “plastic pants.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/plastic_pants. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.