tighty whities

English

Alternative forms

• tight whites, tighty-whiteys, tighty-whities, tightie-whities, tightie whities, tighty whiteys, tightie whiteys, whitey tighties

Etymology

From tight +‎ -y and white +‎ -y.

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Noun

tighty whities pl (plural only)

1. (originally US, colloquial, often derogatory) Men's or boys' traditionally white briefs.
   • 1988 November 16, The Observer (Notre Dame and Saint Mary's), page 5:

     Here are 5 more reasons to hate Chris Jefford: 5 He’s the only date that’s truly from hell. 4 He THINKS that his body his cool. 3 He wants his dates to to tell him so 2 “I want to have sex”. 1 Cool guys don’t wear "tightie-whities". - Someone else who knows.

   • 1990 March 11, Chris Cleeland, “Large breasts”, in alt.sex‎^[1] (Usenet):

     [W]hat do you females (lurkers included :-) think of boxers as opposed to the traditional Fruit-O-The-Loom/Hanes "tighty-whities"?

   • 1999, Noah Hawley, A Conspiracy of Tall Men, page 345:

     Forbes, in his tighty whities and black socks, seems an incongruous apparition against the sense of home the kitchen implies.

   • 2000, Edward Lerner, Creative Destruction, page 29:

     It would indeed be great if my red socks and my tighty whities declared themselves to my washer.

   • 2008, Justin Pinnick, Another Funny Memory, page 62:

     I brushed and flossed my teeth, and got in bed with only my tighty-whities on.

   • 2012, Alice Randall, Ada’s Rules: A Sexy Skinny Novel, page 97:

     Temple was laid out with a cold. Ada hoped she hadn't brought baby Jarius's bug out to him. As soon a Ada had gotten the toilets cleaned and the soup on the stove she rubbed her daddy down with a lemon cut in half, then lowered him (wearing purple tighty whities) into a hot bath she had spiked with red pepper flakes and Tabasco. When Temple was up to his shoulders in the water, Ada gave him a shot of whisky.

   • 2016, NOFX, Jeff Alulis, NOFX: The Hepatitis Bathtub and Other Stories, page 198:

     We never had time to do laundry, so I would rinse my tighty-whiteys in the sink and hang them to dry inside the van during the next day’s ride.

   • 2021, R.J. Linteau, The Architect, page 203:

     Tiny carried a bag of nails tucked into the back of his jeans, worn low to show off his tighty whiteys.

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:underwear
• man panties
• punk panties
• nut huggers
• butt-huggers

Derived terms

• tighties

See also

• banana hammock
• budgie smugglers
• dick togs
• sluggos
• granny panties