Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (now mainly Aus.) trousers.

1853		G.J. Whyte-Melville Digby Grand (1890) 291: ‘Strides,’ the long-suffering creator of manly beauty, who builds your coat on the model of an Apollo.
1889		Clarkson & Richardson Police! 346: If the ‘Peter’ can be found, that is at once appropriated, as also are a man’s ‘strides’ (trousers).
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1909		F.H. Tillotson How I Became a Detective 96: Strides – A pair of trousers.
1914		Tacoma Times (WA) 16 Mar. 4/4: Lord Ballyrot in Slangland [...] ‘Gee, Johnny’s a scream in his first long strides’.
1914		Jackson & Hellyer Vocab. Criminal Sl. 81: strides [...] a pair of trousers.
1921		(con. WWI) E. Lynch Somme Mud 11: And Longun begins pushing his sleeves up and gives his strides a hitch.
1923		N.Z. Truth 20 Jan. 1/3: [cartoon caption] Who’s Going to Wear the Strides?
c.1935		‘Mae West in “The Hip Flipper”’ [comic strip] in B. Adelman Tijuana Bibles (1997) 93: You’re going to get it as soon as I climb out of these strides.
1935		Thieves Slang ms list from District Police Training Centre, Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Warwicks 11: Strides: Trousers.
1936		West. Mail (Perth) 11 June 2/5: There was a bottle of dope in the corner that they used for chats [...] Three or four others took off their flannels and strides and sprinkled some in the seams.
1947		D. Davin For the Rest of Our Lives 196: You should have seen him, Fred, trying to get his strides up.
1954		J.E. Macdonnell Jim Brady 29: ‘Well, my boy,’ said Dad ponderously. [...] ‘You’d better get those long strides to-day.’ Jim stared at him in delight.
1959		D. Niland Big Smoke 11: It’s like taking your strides off and getting in bed.
1960		A. Burgess Doctor Is Sick (1972) 190: We’ll ’ave to knock off somenody’s strides [...] Can’t ’ave you marchin rahnd wiv all vat leg showin’.
1966		P. Pinney Restless Men 71: Why’n’t you get them mullocky strides fumigated?
1977		K. Gilbert Living Black 220: Sitting around or walking around with no strides on ... they’ll never change for the next three generations.
1984		Smiley Culture ‘Cockney Translation’ 🎵 We say pants. Cockney say strides.
1985		R.G. Barrett You Wouldn’t Be Dead for Quids (1989) 112: Give me five minutes to have a snake’s and put me strides on.
1998		P. Doyle (con. late 1950s) Amaze Your Friends (2019) 10: [He] unbuckled his belt and dropped his strides.
1999		Observer Rev. 15 Aug. 16: Porky buggers [...] bulging in their Hugo Boss strides.
2002		J. Cameron Hell on Hoe Street 147: I should have taken a quick pony. Before I spoiled my strides.
2006		B. Matthews Intractable [ebook] She took her panties off. I took my strides off. I put my willy into her snatch and that’s all there was to it.
2011		J.J. Connolly Viva La Madness 93: Ted sits back down, hitches up his strides, like old geezers do.
2016		N. Cummins Adventures of the Honey Badger [ebook] [M]y brothers and I jumped up and dropped our strides, mooning the other rafters.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 309: Midnight blue silk-corduroy strides.

2. (Aus.) knickers, panties.

1961		B. Crump Hang On a Minute, Mate (1963) 161: She came up out of that swamp like one of those prehistoric monsters. Strides half down and covered with red mud.
1984		Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 1167/1: from ca. 1919.

3. (US) shoes.

1960, 1975

Wentworth & Flexner DAS.