Word.ws English Dictionary

smalls

/smɔːlz/US/smɔlz/

smalls noun: underwear. Also the ellipsis of small ads.

Noun

smalls pl (plural only)

  1. (Commonwealth, Ireland, UK, informal, plural, plural-only) Underwear.
    • He's in the garden hanging his smalls on the washing line.
    • The smalls he was wearing were tight.
    Synonyms:
    undies
  2. (plural, plural-only) Small goods.
    • He reassured another questioner that B.R. were still deeply interested in smalls traffic, but said that there would have to be substantial changes in the mode of operation and that concentration of the traffic was essential.1963 December, “News and Comment: Smalls rates to be increased?”, in Modern Railways, page 364
  3. (dated, plural, plural-only, Oxford University slang) The preliminary examination for a degree.
    • You see, Miss Dodd, an university examination consists of several items: neglect but one, and Crichton himself would be ploughed; because brilliancy in your other papers is not allowed to count; that is how the most distinguished man of our day got ploughed for Smalls.1863, Charles Reade, Hard Cash

Proper noun capitalized: Smalls

Smalls

  1. (plural) plural of Small
  2. (alternative) Alternative spelling of Small.

Also used as

smalls is also the ellipsis of small ads.

smalls is also the plural of small.

smalls is also the third-person singular simple present indicative of small.

Examples of smalls in a sentence

  • Unkempt, bearded to the eyes, there he stood clutching his shapeless old cabbage-tree, in mud-stained jumper and threadbare smalls—the very spit of the unsuccessful digger.1917, Henry Handel Richardson, Australia Felix, Echo Library, published 2007, page 31:
  • […]there are also some great B&Bs and guesthouses where you can unpack a toothbrush and fresh set of smalls for the morning.2008, Donna Wheeler, Melbourne & Victoria City Guide, Lonely Planet, page 198:

Synonyms of smalls

Origin of smalls

From small.

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Words formed from smalls

Phrases with smalls

Words that rhyme with smalls

Questions about smalls

What does smalls mean?
Smalls means underwear.
How do you use smalls in a sentence?
Unkempt, bearded to the eyes, there he stood clutching his shapeless old cabbage-tree, in mud-stained jumper and threadbare smalls—the very spit of the unsuccessful digger.
What part of speech is smalls?
Smalls can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce smalls?
Smalls is pronounced /smɔːlz/ (UK).

Words near smalls in the dictionary

  1. smallmouths
  2. smallness
  3. smallnesses
  4. smallpox
  5. smallpoxes
  6. smalls
  7. smallsat
  8. smallsats
  9. smallscale
  10. smallsome
  11. smallstock

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: smalls (page history and authors); Smalls (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-smalls.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-smalls.wav.

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