big-boy pants
English · Thesaurus
AI In plain words
Writing a short explanation…
Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.
big-boy pants
Where it comes from
From big boy.
noun big boy pants
- Pull-up underwear worn by a boy during and after toilet training, as contrasted to the diapers worn during infancy. Taking the baby from Kidd she snatched the screaming Davey by the wrist and half-carried him up the stairs yelling, "You wanna wear big-boy pants? Big boys wear big-boy pants, but big boys use the potty!"
-
A notional pair of trousers or underwear worn by a male when acting maturely.
If Horwitz is planning on running for office again in the future (and it certainly looks that way), perhaps it's time he put on his big-boy pants and engage in civil discourse.
Similar: big-boy britches · Opposite: bitchy pants, grumpy pants, scaredy pants
Talk about this word "big-boy pants." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/big-boy%20pants. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. big-boy pants. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/big-boy%20pants "big-boy pants." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/big-boy%20pants.Cite this
@misc{big_boy_pants_2026,
title = {big-boy pants},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/big-boy%20pants},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
