pants
verb · noun · adjective
Form of pant , third-person singular of pant.
Simple meaning
To breathe quickly or in a labored way, as after exertion or from eagerness or excitement.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
pantsIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈpænts
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
third-person singular of pantambitransitive
To breathe quickly or in a labored manner, as after exertion or from eagerness or excitement; to respire with heaving of the breast; to gasp.
third-person singular of pant
To long eagerly; to desire earnestly.
To pull someone's pants down; to forcibly remove someone's pants.
noun
ukslang
Rubbish; something worthless.
adjective
britishslang
Of inferior quality, rubbish.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- General English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: (ambitransitive) To breathe quickly or in a labored manner, as after exertion or from eagerness or excitement; to respire with heaving of the breast; to gasp.
Used this way, pants is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly warm, approving pull. It carries warmth, so it reads as personal rather than detached.
- Emotional tone
- Positive
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Gentle
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Keen and enthusiastic
- Usage feel
- Warm and expressive
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
Breathe noisily, as when one is exhausted.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
Short underpants for women or children (usually used in the plural).
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A home appliance in which trousers can be hung and the wrinkles pressed out.
A pair of pants and a matching jacket worn by women.
Trousers reaching to the foot.
Trousers with legs that flare.
Trousers that end at or above the knee.
Trousers made of a stretchy fabric.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.