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petticoat

/ˈpɛt.ɪ.koʊt/noun, verb, adjective

petticoat is a noun meaning “A tight, usually padded undercoat worn by women over a shirt and under the doublet” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled P-E-T-T-I-C-O-A-T and has 3 syllables, and it appears about once in every 2 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of petticoat is petticoats.

What does petticoat mean?

noun

  1. 1

    A tight, usually padded undercoat worn by women over a shirt and under the doublet.

  2. 2

    A woman's undercoat, worn to be displayed beneath an open gown.

  3. 3

    A fisherman's loose canvas or oilcloth skirt.

  4. 4

    archaicA type of ornamental skirt or underskirt, often displayed below a dress; chiefly in plural, designating a woman's skirts collectively.

  5. 5

    A light woman's undergarment worn under a dress or skirt, and hanging either from the shoulders or (now especially) from the waist; a kind of slip, worn to make the skirt fuller, or for extra warmth.

  6. 6

    slangA woman.

  7. 7

    A bell-mouthed piece over the exhaust nozzles in the smokebox of a locomotive, strengthening and equalising the draught through the boiler-tubes.

verb

  1. 1

    To dress in a petticoat.

adjective

  1. 1

    datedFeminine; female; involving a woman.

    petticoat influence

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you pronounce petticoat?

  • UK /ˈpɛt.ɪ.kəʊt/
  • US /ˈpɛt.ɪ.koʊt/
  • US [ˈpɛɾ.ɪ.koʊt]

Petticoat has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-au-petticoat.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of petticoat

  • petticoats plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • petticoating participle, present
  • petticoated participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How common is petticoat?

Petticoat appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 45,363rd most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

Petticoat in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchcotillon (historical: ornamental skirt or underskirt), jupon, combinaison (woman's undergarment worn under a skirt)
GermanPetticoat (historical: ornamental skirt or underskirt), Unterrock (woman's undergarment worn under a skirt)
Portugueseanágua (woman's undergarment worn under a skirt)
Spanishenaguas, tontillo, combinación, fondo, fustán, peticote (woman's undergarment worn under a skirt)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does petticoat come from?

From Middle English petticote, petycote, peticote, petite cote, equivalent to petty + coat.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).