Meaning
Describes an approach that uses two independent safeguards so that if one fails the other still holds; deliberate redundancy in planning, design, or procedure. Chiefly British, with belt and suspenders as the American equivalent. Often used attributively before nouns such as approach or measures, and it can imply that the caution is excessive. Neutral register; mildly approving of caution, though it can hint at unnecessary duplication. Regional use: British English (clothing origin).
Origin
From the comic image of a man so pessimistic about his trousers falling down that he wears both a belt and braces at once. The joke was in print early in the twentieth century: the New York Sun of 12 July 1912 asked why some men wear both supports under the headline Doubly Safe, and in Britain the Citizen of Gloucester reported in August 1921 that the Bishop of St Albans defined a pessimist as a man who wears a belt as well as braces. The figurative shorthand followed within decades. The Phrase Finder's earliest example is the Western Daily Press of September 1942, comparing a farmer who kept both a tractor and horses, and Word Histories traces figurative belt and braces to a 1948 Suffolk newspaper piece about a standby water pump, with the American belt and suspenders turning figurative in 1952.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- a belt-and-braces job
- belt and suspenders
- belt-and-braces approach
- belt-and-braces measures
Usage Examples
- The builders took a belt-and-braces approach, bolting the frame to the slab as well as mortaring it.
- Keep the paper copy as well as the cloud backup; it is belt and braces, but I have lost files before.
- The extra clause is belt and braces, since the main contract already covers the risk.