different between petticoat vs petticoatless

English

Etymology

From Middle English petticote, petycote, peticote, petite cote, equivalent to petty +? coat.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?p?t?k??t/

Noun

petticoat (plural petticoats)

1. (historical) A tight, usually padded undercoat worn by men over a shirt and under the doublet.
2. (historical) A woman's undercoat, worn to be displayed beneath an open gown.
3. (historical) A fisherman's loose canvas or oilcloth skirt.
4. (archaic or historical) A type of ornamental skirt or underskirt, often displayed below a dress; chiefly in plural, designating a woman's skirts collectively.
5. A light woman's undergarment worn under a dress or skirt, and hanging either from the shoulders or (now especially) from the waist; a kind of slip, worn to make the skirt fuller, or for extra warmth.
6. (slang) A woman.
7. (historical) A bell-mouthed piece over the exhaust nozzles in the smokebox of a locomotive, strengthening and equalising the draught through the boiler-tubes.

Synonyms

• underskirt

Derived terms

• petticoat government
• petticoating
• petticoat pipe
• underpetticoat

Translations

Verb

petticoat (third-person singular simple present petticoats, present participle petticoating, simple past and past participle petticoated)

1. (transitive) To dress in a petticoat.

Adjective

petticoat (not comparable)

1. (dated) Feminine; female; involving a woman.

   petticoat influence

   a petticoat affair

English

Etymology

petticoat +? -less

Adjective

petticoatless (not comparable)

1. Without a petticoat.
   • 1988, Phyllis Lee Levin, Abigail Adams: A Biography

     Though she consoled herself that the petticoatless performers, both male and female, were well clad underneath with "draws," she regretted the loss of "delicacy, modesty and diffidence" involved in the entire presentation.