Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US) underwear, usu. male.

1915		K.Y. Rockwell letter 17 Apr. in War Letters (2008) 34: I received the underwear [...] I was glad they were not warm suits, but would have preferred something in the line of B.V.D.’s as they are easier washed, and easier for clearing of lice.
1916		O.O. McIntyre New York Day By Day 30 Aug. [synd. col.] Calls for help [by women robbed of their underwear] were sent to husbands across the corridor. The calls were not ‘S.O.S.’ or ‘C.Q.D.’ but ’B.V.D’.
1918		J.M. Grider War Birds (1926) 144: Her B.V.D.s were Grecian and were trimmed with Persian lace.
1927		Cow Cow Davenport ‘Jim Crow Blues’ 🎵 I’m goin’ up North where they say money grows on trees, / [...] / I’m goin’ where I don’t need no BVD’s.
1930		J.P. McEvoy Hollywood Girl 144: This is a real party. Everyone in their B.V.D.’s.
1942		P. Wylie Generation of Vipers 190: Tear the man’s clothes from his body [...] down to his B.V.D.’s.
1952		(con. 1920s) ‘Harry Grey’ Hoods (1953) 169: We go in [the water] in our B.V.D.’s.
c.1960		in E. Cray Erotic Muse (1992) 280: She wore her panties, her pretty pink panties / And I wore my BVD’s. [Ibid.] 281: She had ’em, yeah, she had ’em. / She had a pair of BVD’s. / She wore ’em, she wore ’em. / She wore them right below her knees. / She wore ’em in the springtime / And she wore ’em in the fall. / And when she had a date / She never wore ’em at all. / But she had ’em. She had ’em. / She had a pair of BVD’s.
1966		G. & K. Swarthout Whichaway (1967) 64: You’ve got my underwear, your B.V.D.’s.
1976		J. Stanley World War III (1979) 87: Below his waist, the man was wearing only BVDs.