short, loose trousers that fit tightly just below the knee, worn especially in the past (尤指舊時穿的膝下紮緊的)燈籠褲 Word Originmid 19th cent. (originally in sense (2)): named after Diedrich Knickerbocker, pretended author of W. Irving's History of New York (1809). Sense (1) is said to have arisen from the resemblance of knickerbockers to the knee breeches worn by Dutch men in George Cruikshank's illustrations in Irving's book.