Word.ws English Dictionary

too big for one's breeches

too big for one's breeches is the alternative spelling of too big for one's britches.

Meaning of too big for one's britches

Adjective

too big for one's britches (not comparable)

  1. (idiomatic) Disturbingly confident; unacceptably cocky.
    • "There was a reward, I heard. That would pay the doctor and the hotel." "You ain't going to collect it,' Bert informed him. "It'd make you too big for your britches."1949, Dorothy M. Johnson, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance; in Indian Country, London: Corgi, 1961, page 103
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: Too large to fit into one's pants.

Questions about too big for one's breeches

What is too big for one's breeches the alternative spelling of?
Too big for one's breeches is the alternative spelling of too big for one's britches.

Words near too big for one's breeches in the dictionary

  1. Tonyville
  2. too
  3. too bad
  4. too bad, so sad
  5. too big for one's boots
  6. too big for one's breeches
  7. too big for one's britches
  8. too big to fail
  9. too big to jail
  10. too clever by half
  11. too close for comfort

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: too big for one's breeches (page history and authors); too big for one's britches (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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