Meaning
A humorous British and Irish expression meaning to become unduly agitated, upset or angry, especially over something trivial; often heard in the imperative 'don't get your knickers in a twist' as a telling-off to calm down. The image is of twisted underwear standing in for a flustered, tangled state of mind. Informal and jocular; usually implies the agitation is disproportionate. Though the garment named is women's underwear, it is freely said of men. American speakers say panties in a bunch or a wad. Keep distinct from this site's all fur coat and no knickers, a different knickers idiom. Regional use: British and Irish English.
Origin
The word knickers is a nineteenth-century clipping of knickerbockers: the OED's earliest evidence for knickers is 1881, in the writing of Richard Jefferies, and Etymonline dates the loose-trousers sense to 1866 and the women's-underwear sense to about 1882. The idiom is far younger than people assume. The earliest documented occurrence, per Word Histories' newspaper survey, is Reginald Smyth's Andy Capp strip in the Daily Mirror of 26 January 1971, followed by the Morning Star of 26 June 1971 about Foreign Office officials; by 1973 it was enough of a catchphrase for a film title and an advertisement to pun on it. Twisted clothing as a metaphor for a tangled mind is much older - George Eliot's Romola (1863) has 'thou hast got thy legs into twisted hose' - but that is antecedent imagery, not the idiom. The American cousins are later: panties in a twist from 1975, in a wad from 1980, in a bunch from 1986, per Word Histories' companion study.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- get your knickers in a knot
- get your panties in a bunch
- get your panties in a wad
Usage Examples
- Don't get your knickers in a twist about the seating plan; the registrar will sort it out in five minutes.
- The paper got its knickers in a twist over a councillor's typo, as if the whole budget depended on it.
- She told the team, without a hint of irony, not to get their knickers in a twist over a fifteen-minute delay.