ESL Podcast 422 - Shopping for Underwear

underwear - clothes worn underneath one's regular clothing that shouldn't be seen normally

I need to do laundry because I don't have any more clean underwear!

unmentionables - underwear; a funny way to refer to underwear, as if it were indecent or inappropriate to talk about underwear in a conversation

Whenever Aunt Peggy talks about underwear, she gets embarrassed, turns red, and refers to the clothes as "unmentionables."

lingerie - women's underwear, especially when it is very fancy, sexy, and/or expensive

Many stores sell red and pink lingerie in the weeks before Valentine's Day.

bra - a type of underwear worn by women that goes over their shoulders and around their chest to support their breasts

How old was your daughter when she started wearing a bra for the first time?

underwire - a curved piece of metal that is sewn into some bras to provide extra support for large breasts

Some women think that wearing a bra with an underwire is uncomfortable, but most women who have very large breasts like them.

strapless - a piece of clothing that does not have any fabric going over a woman's shoulder, usually a dress or bra

Beth plans to wear a strapless dress to the dance, but she needs to buy a strapless bra to wear with it.

cup - the part of a bra that has a rounded shape and fits over one breast available in sizes AAA (the smallest) through DDD (the biggest)

During pregnancy, her breasts grew and her bra cup size went from a B to a C.

panties - underwear worn around a woman's waist, over her bottom, and between her legs

Becca wore black panties under white pants, and everyone could see them.

slip - a piece of underwear that is like a skirt made from very thin fabric, designed to be worn under a regular skirt so that light cannot be seen between a woman's legs

Normally, I wear a slip under my skirt, but with a black skirt it doesn't seem necessary.

pantyhose - nylons; a type of leggings; a very thin fabric that one can see through and usually has a brown or black color that is worn over a woman's legs up to her waist, used to makes her legs look smooth and evenly colored when she is wearing a skirt or dress

Women who work in a bank are supposed to wear pantyhose every day because it makes them look more professional.

to snicker - to laugh quietly at another person in a way that is not very nice

The students snickered when they saw that their teacher had broccoli in her teeth.

boxers - underwear worn around a man's waist, over his bottom, and between his legs that is loose and comes down to the middle of his thigh (upper leg)

Louis wanted to go swimming, but he had forgotten to bring a swimsuit, so he just wore his boxers instead.

waistband - the expandable piece of elastic around the waist of one's clothes that keeps one's clothes from falling down

Jared lost a lot of weight and now the waistband in his pants is too big for him.

button fly - the front part of a pair of pants or underwear that can be opened and closed with buttons (instead of a zipper, which is more common)

In the 1980s, button-fly jeans were very popular in the United States.

boxer briefs - underwear worn around a man's waist, over his bottom, and between his legs that is tight and comes down to the middle of his thigh (upper leg)

Boxer briefs have the same shape as boxers, but they are much tighter, like briefs are.

seamless - without seams; without lines that are created by sewing two pieces of fabric or cloth together; made of only one piece of fabric that hasn't been sewn

Lynn doesn't like the feeling of seams rubbing against her skin, so she often wears a seamless shirt underneath her regular shirts.

briefs - underwear worn around a man's waist, over his bottom, and between his legs that is tight and does not cover any part of his thigh (upper leg)

Do you prefer wearing briefs or boxers?

g-string - a type of underwear for men or women that goes around one's waist and between one's legs, but that has only a very small piece of fabric in the back that goes between one's buttocks (the two large areas of skin on one's bottom) so that the buttocks can be seen

G-strings are very uncomfortable, but some people like to wear them because they think they're sexy.