Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun plural Suspenders for trousers.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Same as
gallowses , plural ofgallows , in sense 7.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun
braces /suspenders fortrousers
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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A motley company of about a dozen men they were, dressed in cheap trousers supported by "galluses," coarse shirts, and wide-brim straw hats.
The Kentucky Ranger Edward T. Curnick
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Then he served the trousers and the "galluses" the same way; likewise Benny Ellison's socks.
The Rival Campers Ashore The Mystery of the Mill Ruel Perley Smith 1903
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"More or less," he admitted, wishing to goodness he had on his best pair of "galluses" instead of the ones he was wearing.
Anderson Crow, Detective George Barr McCutcheon 1897
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Berry, a spool of cotton for Mrs. Wentworth, and a pair of "galluses" for Living Bean.
The Village Watch-Tower Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin 1889
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He had on a straw hat lined with green calico, and his trousers were of blue jeans, held up by "galluses" of the same; but he was a handsome fellow, with sound white teeth and thick curling locks.
The Wizard's Daughter and Other Stories Margaret Collier Graham 1880
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Page 171 crosses his "galluses" (leather) before and behind to keep his "britches" on him, very thin visaged, yellow "pumpkin" skin, tough and wrinkled.
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He would stare dumfounded at the erudite personage at the head of the class; Leander's bare feet were always carefully adjusted to a crack between the puncheons of the floor, literally "toeing the mark"; his broad trousers, frayed out liberally at the hem, revealed his skinny and scarred little ankles, for his out-door adventures were not without a record upon the more impressionable portions of his anatomy; his waistband was drawn high up under his shoulder-blades and his ribs, and girt over the shoulders of his unbleached cotton shirt by braces, which all his learning did not prevent him from calling "galluses"; his cut, scratched, calloused hands were held stiffly down at the side seams in his nether garments in strict accordance with the regulations.
The Moonshiners At Hoho-Hebee Falls 1895 Mary Noailles Murfree 1886
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"galluses" for sale, -- gallus being a shop-boy's term at the time for suspenders.
Cambridge Sketches Frank Preston Stearns 1881
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It was a regular antheap all the way in, with the miners crawling over the tree-clad slopes, and the ceaseless thump of picks and scrape of shovels and ring of axes, and ramshackle huts and shanties and sluice-boxes everywhere, with dirty bearded fellows in slouch hats and galluses cussing and burrowing, and claim signs all along Sweetheart Mine, Crossbone Diggings, Damyereyes Gulch, and the like.
Isabelle Estelle Bruno 2010
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Their spokesman was a brash young card in a cut-away coat with his thumbs hooked in his galluses.
Isabelle Estelle Bruno 2010
bilby commented on the word galluses
Scots - braces (for holding up a pair of trousers).
December 6, 2007
hernesheir commented on the word galluses
"He who says he never shit on the cross of his galluses is a damned liar, and the truth ain't in him."
- John Hartford (1937-2001) - composer of the Glen Campbell hit Gentle on my Mind, riverboat pilot, raconteur, Old-Time Musician.
I met John Hartford once before he died, at the Clifftop Old-Time music festival in Fayette Co. West Virginia. Music legends can be lonely in a place like that, since most haven't the courage to walk up and say "Can we play a tune or two?"
September 29, 2009