subs. (common).—In pl. = trousers, breeches. Variants, mostly introduced by Dickens, are—INEFFABLES; INEXPRESSIBLES; INDESCRIBABLES; INEXPLICABLES; UNHINTABLES; UNUTTERABLES; UNWHISPERABLES, etc.
1837. DICKENS, Sketches by Boz, x., ‘Shabby-Genteel People.’ The knees of the UNMENTIONABLES, and the elbows of the coat, and the seams generally, soon began to get alarmingly white.
1885. The Field, 19 Dec. Fishing stockings full of water, UNMENTIONABLES ditto.
[1903. Globe, 24 Oct., 1. 3. Bifurcated UNWHISPERABLES offer no resistance to the wind. To the woman, the skirt is not only a hampering garment; it is a sail against which the wind blows.]
