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shreddies - What does it mean?

Definition of 'shreddies'

English

Noun

(en-plural noun)
  • (British|slang) Underwear.
  • * 1995, Joe Simpson, This Game of Ghosts , The Mountaineers Books, ISBN 0898864607,
  • As Mark came out of the bathroom, I remembered my underpants. ¶ ‘Hey Mark, have you got my shreddies ?’
  • * 2001, Irvine Welsh, Glue , W. W. Norton & Company, ISBN 0393322157, page 40,
  • As ah stand up n pill oan ma shreddies , then ma jeans in T-shirt, she's staring oaf intae space, then wrappin her clathes roond her.
  • * 2004, Harry Foxley, Marking Time: A Soldier's Story , Trafford Publishing, ISBN 1412015871, page 165,
  • So adept did I become, in fact, that I could shower, shave and wash out socks and shreddies on as little as three penn’orth remaining on the meter (which had not yet been decimalized).
  • * 2004, Toby Bishop, Cry Havoc: A Trip to Hell for a Group of Ageing Mercenaries Who Should Have Known Better , iUniverse, ISBN 0595321658, page 43,
  • Their luggage was minimal, as he would have expected—shirts, Shreddies , socks, trousers and the rest of the basics of self-maintenance.
  • * 2006, Brian Carlin, Boy Entrant , Lulu Press, Inc., ISBN 1411694333, page 61,
  • *:“Drawers, cellular, six”—that was six pairs of loose-legged underwear that would come down to mid-thigh made from a cellular cotton fabric. We would later learn that the RAF slang name for these garments was “shreddies ” because of their tendency to become threadbare and shred at the crotch where they rubbed against the harsh worsted material of our trousers.
  • References

    *“shreddies” in Jeremy Smith, Bum Bags and Fanny Packs: A British-American, American-British Dictionary , Carroll & Graf Publishers (2006), ISBN 0-7867-1702-5, page 75.