An article of feminine apparel.
1846. Said traveller stated he had seen a piano somewhere in New England with pantalettes on.—T. B. Thorpe, ‘Mysteries of the Backwoods,’ p. 21.
1847. If I hadnt a had on my pantalets I reckon somebody would of knowd whether I gartered above my knees or not.—W. T. Porter, ed., ‘The Big Bear of Arkansas,’ etc., p. 104 (Farmer).
1854. The girls wore ruffles on their pantalettes frizzled down over their shoes, nearly concealing the whole foot.—H. H. Riley, ‘Puddleford,’ p. 94 (N.Y.).
1855. [The eagle] had been converted into a creature which, instead of soaring to heaven as the presager of liberty, was running about the cock-pit, looking very much like an old school-girl in pantalettes, with wide ruffles, or even more like one of those strong-minded females who pass their declining years in asserting ‘women’s rights,’ and the ‘higher law,’ and who generally become ‘Bloomers’ about the time when they cease to bloom.—Knick. Mag., xlv. 47 (Jan.).
1855. When but a little puss in pantalettes, of no more than thirteen years old, she was mistress of her father’s house.—C. W. Philleo, ‘Twice Married,’ Putnam’s Mag., v. 318/2 (March).
1857. The landlady’s daughter, a shrill and objectionable girl in pantalettes, whose hair curled the wrong way, who was horribly inquisitive, never closed doors, and appeared subject to a mysterious disease denominated “the Mumps,” which necessitated the perpetual bandaging of her head in dirty handkerchiefs.—T. B. Gunn, ‘New York Boarding-houses,’ p. 77.
