Knee-length breeches, worn especially in the 18th century.
1841, Leigh Hunt, Essays:
Even fashions, otherwise convenient, as the trousers that have so long taken place of smallclothes, often perhaps owe their continuance to some general defect . . .
1869, R[ichard] D[oddridge] Blackmore, chapter XI, in Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor.[…], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Sampson Low, Son, & Marston,[…], →OCLC: