Kilt vs. Petticoat — What's the Difference?

A kilt (Scottish Gaelic: fèileadh [ˈfeːləɣ]; Irish: féileadh) is a type of knee-length men’s dress skirt non-bifurcated with pleats at the back, originating in the traditional dress of Gaelic men and boys in the Scottish Highlands. It is first recorded in the 16th century as the great kilt, a full-length garment whose upper half could be worn as a cloak.

A petticoat or underskirt is an article of clothing, a type of undergarment worn under a skirt or a dress. Its precise meaning varies over centuries and between countries.

A garment resembling a knee-length skirt of pleated tartan cloth, traditionally worn by men as part of Scottish Highland dress and now also worn by women and girls.

A girl's or woman's undergarment, worn under a dress or skirt, that is often full and trimmed with ruffles or lace. Also called pettiskirt.

Gather (a garment or material) in vertical pleats.

Relating to or characteristic of women.

Tuck up one's skirts around one's body.

(historical) A tight, usually padded undercoat worn by men over a shirt and under the doublet.

A knee-length skirt with deep pleats, usually of a tartan wool, worn as part of the dress for men in the Scottish Highlands.

(historical) A woman's undercoat, worn to be displayed beneath an open gown.

A similar skirt worn by women, girls, and boys.

(historical) A fisherman's loose canvas or oilcloth skirt.

To tuck up (something) around the body.

A type of ornamental skirt or underskirt, often displayed below a dress; chiefly in plural, designating a woman's skirts collectively.

To gather up (skirts) around the body.

A light woman's undergarment worn under a dress or skirt, and hanging either from the shoulders or (now especially) from the waist; a kind of slip, worn to make the skirt fuller, or for extra warmth.

Nonstandard form of killed.

(slang) A woman.

A traditional Scottish garment, usually worn by men, having roughly the same morphology as a wrap-around skirt, with overlapping front aprons and pleated around the sides and back, and usually made of twill-woven worsted wool with a tartan pattern.

(historical) A bell-mouthed piece over the exhaust nozzles in the smokebox of a locomotive, strengthening and equalising the draught through the boiler-tubes.

(historical) Any Scottish garment from which the above lies in a direct line of descent, such as the philibeg, or the great kilt or belted plaid

(transitive) To dress in a petticoat.

A plaid, pleated school uniform skirt sometimes structured as a wraparound, sometimes pleated throughout the entire circumference; also worn by boys in the 19th-century United States.

(dated) Feminine; female; involving a woman.

A variety of non-bifurcated garments made for men and loosely resembling a Scottish kilt, but most often made from different fabrics and not always with tartan plaid designs.

A loose under-garment worn by women, and covering the body below the waist.

A kind of short petticoat, reaching from the waist to the knees, worn in the Highlands of Scotland by men, and in the Lowlands by young boys; a filibeg.

Undergarment worn under a skirt

To tuck up; to truss up, as the clothes.

A knee-length pleated tartan skirt worn by men in the Highlands of northern Scotland