crackers, plural noun

Origin:
See quotation 1879.
obs. except in historical contexts
Poorly tanned sheepskin or leather trousers as worn during the 19th century. Cf. vel-broeks.
1833 Cape of G.H. Lit. Gaz. 2 Sept. 238 (Pettman)Old Crackers alias leather breeches.
1837 ‘N. Polson’ Subaltern’s Sick Leave 100Plain in person.., clothed in..a pair of tanned sheep-skin oh-no-we-never-mention-ems, commonly called crackers.
1838 T. Shone Diary. 15 Nov.Finished a pr of crackers for Henry.
1847 ‘A Bengali’ Notes on Cape of G.H. 19The Dutch farmer’s dress is very uniform; leather trowsers, called ‘crackers’, a straw hat with a green veil.
1852 A.W. Cole Cape & Kafirs 90The Hottentot..wore leather ‘crackers’, as the nether garments are termed in South Africa.
1879 T.J. Lucas Zulus & Brit. Frontiers 88Leather pantaloons. These were euphoniously termed ‘crackers’ from the peculiar noise which they made when in motion.
1883 M.A. Carey-Hobson Farm in Karoo 196‘Fancy being caught in a shower with leather trousers on.’ ‘Yes, and then the hot sun coming out and drying them on you, causing them to crackle up in all sorts of sharp angles; they might well call them crackers, which was the name they gave them.’
1911 D.B. Hook ’Tis but Yesterday 20They all wore ‘leather-crackers’, and wild cat skins, extending from the waist to the knee.
1911 D.B. Hook ’Tis but Yesterday 20The little swordsman in leather ‘crackers,’ who rode at him like the very devil!
1913 C. Pettman Africanderisms 530Leather or skin trousers were much worn in the earlier days of the Colony, and were known among the settlers of 1820 and their descendants as ‘Crackers’.
1949 L.G. Green In Land of Afternoon 15The inhabitants were supposed to be all Boers, dressed in leather crackers and batjes and shod with veldchoons.
1975 D.H. Strutt Clothing Fashions 169The prepared sheepskin trousers worn by some of the early settlers were known as crackers from the noise they made with the slightest movement of the wearer.
1975 D.H. Strutt Clothing Fashions 169 [see klapbroek].
Poorly tanned sheepskin or leather trousers as worn during the 19th century.
Entry Navigation

Visualise Quotations

Quotation summary

Senses

18331975

Browse Related Words

By Category

Clothing Fabrics and Jewellery

By Usage

obsolete or obsolescent
cracker, nounn.crane flower, noun phrasen. phr.
Copyright © 2025 Dictionary Unit for South African English