Meaning & use
kecks
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Meaning
nounpluralBritishslang
Trousers, or sometimes underpants, in very informal northern British speech.
Grammar: Plural with no singular: his kecks were muddy.
Patterns
- drop your kecks
- keep your kecks on
He fell in the mud and ruined his new kecks.
Put your kecks on, we're leaving in five minutes.
The kid ran across the field with his kecks round his ankles.
Common combinations
- drop your kecks
- The comedian threatened to drop his kecks on stage.
- pull up your kecks
- Pull up your kecks, lad, they're falling down.
- muddy kecks
- I left my muddy kecks by the back door.
- pair of kecks
- He bought a new pair of kecks for the wedding.
Synonyms and how they differ
- trousers
- Trousers is the neutral standard word that works in any situation, while kecks is local slang.
- strides
- Strides is also British slang, but it is more associated with the south and with Australian speech.
- daks
- Daks is Australian slang for trousers and is not used in Britain.
- pants
- Pants means trousers in American English but underwear in British English, so it can confuse.
Word family
Commonly confused: kecks or kex? kecks or cakes?
kecks vs kex
Kex is a variant spelling of the same clothing word, though in some dialects it also means dry plant stalks or a cracker.
kecks vs cakes
Cakes sounds similar in a northern accent, but it means baked sweet food, not clothing.
Practice
In northern British slang, what would you be putting on if you said 'I need to find my kecks'?
Choose one answer.
Kecks is slang for trousers. The other options are clothing items, but none of them is covered by this slang word.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “kecks”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.