English

Noun

shreddies pl ‎(plural only)

1. (Britain, slang) Underwear.
   • 1995, Joe Simpson, This Game of Ghosts, The Mountaineers Books, ISBN 0898864607,

     As Mark came out of the bathroom, I remembered my underpants. ¶ ‘Hey Mark, have you got my shreddies?’

   • 2001, Irvine Welsh, Glue, W. W. Norton & Company, ISBN 0393322157, page 40,

     As ah stand up n pill oan ma shreddies, then ma jeans in T-shirt, she's staring oaf intae space, then wrappin her clathes roond her.

   • 2004, Harry Foxley, Marking Time: A Soldier's Story, Trafford Publishing, ISBN 1412015871, page 165,

     So adept did I become, in fact, that I could shower, shave and wash out socks and shreddies on as little as three penn’orth remaining on the meter (which had not yet been decimalized).

   • 2004, Toby Bishop, Cry Havoc: A Trip to **** for a Group of Ageing Mercenaries Who Should Have Known Better, iUniverse, ISBN 0595321658, page 43,

     Their luggage was minimal, as he would have expected—shirts, Shreddies, socks, trousers and the rest of the basics of self-maintenance.

   • 2006, Brian Carlin, Boy Entrant, Lulu Press, Inc., ISBN 1411694333, page 61,

     “Drawers, cellular, six”—that was six pairs of loose-legged underwear that would come down to mid-thigh made from a cellular cotton fabric. We would later learn that the RAF slang name for these garments was “shreddies” because of their tendency to become threadbare and shred at the crotch where they rubbed against the harsh worsted material of our trousers.

References

• “shreddies” in Jeremy Smith, Bum Bags and Fanny Packs: A British-American, American-British Dictionary, Carroll & Graf Publishers (2006), ISBN 0-7867-1702-5, page 75.