hip pocketn.
/ˌhɪp ˈpɒkᵻt/, U.S. /ˈhɪp ˌpɑkət/, Australian English /ˌhɪp ˈpɔkət/ A pocket in the back of a garment, esp. a pair of trousers, just behind the hip; = back pocket n. 1a. Also: such a pocket at the side of the front of a garment (contrasted with back pocket).In both cases typically one of a pair, one on either side of the garment.In quot. 1998 (Australian): such a pocket viewed as the repository of a person's wallet or cash; cf. Compounds 2.
ΘΚΠ
the world > textiles and clothing > clothing > types or styles of clothing > clothing for legs > clothing for legs and lower body > [noun] > trousers > parts of > pocket
foba1652
spung1728
breeches-pocket1783
watch fob1785
fob-pocket1837
hip pocket1865
prat-kick1896
slide1932
1865 Express 6 June 3/2 Dress—black coat with outside hip pockets, black waistcoat, brown mixture trousers, lace-up boots.
1880 News & Press (Cimarron, New Mexico) 22 July 3/2 Lee snatched Armstrong's revolver from his hip pocket and pointed it at Armstrong.
1920 Amer. Woman Aug. 2/1 ‘I've got my ticket!’ He extracted it with difficulty from a very tight hip pocket, and presented it with dignity.
1982 New Mexican (Santa Fe) 21 July b3/1 Navratilova, wearing American flags on the hip pockets of her skirt, said she is much more American than Czechoslovakian these days.
1998 Advertiser (Austral.) (Nexis) 27 May Surely the best way to make these people comply with the law is to hit them in the hip pocket.
2012 C. Stroud Niceville 277 Charlie..pulled the pay-as-you-go cell out of his hip pocket.
Phrases
North American. in a person's (also a thing's) hip pocket and variants: completely under the control or influence of a person, organization, etc.; cf. in a person's pocket at pocket n. and adj. Phrases 1aback pocket n. 1b.
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1954 Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Gaz. 30 Sept. 4/5 I am not in the ‘hip pocket’ of labor; neither am I in the hip pocket of the Iowa Manufacturers Association.
1977 Washington Post (Nexis) 20 Nov. a1 Democrats..had the South in their hip pocket, and the Republicans just gave up.
1989 S. Nickel Torso ii. 34 A number of local politicians..were also in Capone's hip pocket.
2006 G. Lawson & W. Oldham Brotherhoods iv. 93 He had a crooked cop in his hip pocket.
Compounds
C1. General attributive, with the sense ‘of or relating to a hip pocket; that is or may be carried in or on the hip pocket’, as hip pocket flask, hip pocket wallet, hip pocket button, etc.
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1881 North Amer. (Philadelphia) 28 Mar. $50 in cash to the winner, a field gun to the second, and a hip-pocket flask..to the third.
1939 N. I. Stone et al. Productivity of Labor in Cotton-garment Industry (U.S. Dept. Labor) v. 101 (table) Sewing fly and hip pocket buttons.
1955 Syracuse (N.Y.) Herald Jrnl. 8 Dec. 4 (advt.) Choose the best in billfolds... Folded it's a regular hip-pocket billfold. Flat, a slim breast-pocket secretary.
1972 Guardian 27 Oct. 12/1 A general election..is one option in Mr Heath's hip pocket list.
1994 Daily Plainsman (Huron, S. Dakota) 20 Mar. 25/6 Prolonged sitting..or pressure from a hip pocket wallet can lead to piriformis syndrome.
2010 J. Ahem Armed for Personal Def. xii. 183 It's merely a hip pocket holster. These are typically flat on one side, a molded holster on the other side.
C2. attributive. Australian. figurative. Of or relating to financial resources, esp. in political contexts.With reference to the hip pocket as the repository of a person's wallet or cash; cf. pocket n. 4b.Recorded earliest in hip-pocket nerve n. at Compounds 3.
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society > trade and finance > money > funds or pecuniary resources > [adjective] > funds of sovereign or state
fiscal1570
bursal1837
Federal Reserve1913
hip pocket1946
1946 Sunday Sun (Sydney) 2 June (Fact & Opinion Suppl.) 6/2 [Prime Minister] Chifley says: ‘The Commonwealth has the power of the purse. The hip-pocket nerve is a very sensitive nerve in the human frame.’
1977 H. S. Albinski Austral. External Policy under Labor iii. 87 The right was worried that the public had become too preoccupied with narrow hip-pocket concerns.
1987 Times 8 July 8 With only three days left to polling [in the Australian election], his statement was one of the few that strayed from the hip-pocket issues of the economy and taxation.
2007 Daily Tel. (Austral.) (Nexis) 13 Oct. 69 The very nature of financial planning in this country threatens the material future of our young people. It has proven to be a hip pocket problem for many retirees.
C3.
hip-pocket nerve n. originally and chiefly Australian an imaginary nerve which reacts whenever demands are made on one's money, esp. in the context of government proposals to increase taxes.
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1946Hip-pocket nerve [see Compounds 2].
1987 Financial Times 10 July 28/4 The tax promises are aimed squarely, almost cynically, at the ‘hip-pocket nerve’ of middle Australia.
2010 J. Curran & S. Ward Unknown Nation vii. 228 The hip-pocket nerve may have been at the forefront of the committee's focus—above all it wanted people to ‘buy Australian’.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2018; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1865