drawers, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

drawers n.

[? their being drawn on and off; the subseq. colloq. use to mean underpants does not materialize until 17C]

(UK Und.) stockings.

c.1566		Harman Caveat for Common Cursetours in Viles & Furnivall (1907) 83: drawers hosen.
1592		Groundworke of Conny-catching n.p.: [as cit. c.1566].
1610		Rowlands Martin Mark-all 38: Drawers Hosen.
1612		Dekker ‘Canting Song’ O per se O O2: From thy stampers then remove thy drawers and lets prig in sport.
1637		Dekker ‘Canting Song’ in Eng. Villainies (8th edn) O2: [as cit. 1612].
1648		Dekker ‘Canters Dict.’ Eng. Villainies (9th edn).
1665		Head Eng. Rogue I 48: Drawers, Stockings.
a.1674		‘A Wenches complaint for . . . her lusty Rogue’ Head Canting Academy (1674) 17: Harmanbecks did never toure / For thee, though Drawers still had loure.
1688		R. Holme Academy of Armory Ch. iii item 68c: Canting Terms used by Beggars, Vagabonds, Cheaters, Cripples and Bedlams. [...] Drawers, Hosen.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Drawers Stockings.
1707		‘Maunder’s Praise of His Strowling Mort’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 34: [as cit. 1612].
1719		A. Smith Lives of Most Notorious Highway-men, etc. (1926) 205: Drawers, stockings.
1725		New Canting Dict. n.p.: drawers Stockens.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1754		Scoundrel’s Dict. 17: Hose – Drawers.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.
1859		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. 33: DRAWERS, formerly the ancient cant name for very long stockings; now a hosier’s term.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict. [as cit. 1859].
1873		Sl. Dict.