crinoline

Next thing you know ChatGPT gives you the best way to crank your automobile and take good care of your crinoline.

And it seems to refer to women, at least those wearing crinoline, because it is used to introduce Twain’s dislike for Kate Field.

He did not suffer fools or rivals gladly, especially if they wore crinoline.

He did not suffer rivals gladly, especially those who wore crinoline.

> Crinoline has been the most abused article under the sun, but ladies have been unanimous in its praise..

And further that it's intended to be a figurative use of the word meant to convey that he disliked people who were stiff or formal, like a crinoline.

> They cause the pants to balloon out when you look at them, almost like a crinoline dress on your legs.

Everything was cutsie-pie crinoline skirts and ‘How Much Is That Doggy in the Window?’; the girls knew their place and they weren’t women’s libbers yet; everything was very tightly organized.

Art Garfunkel sings about wearing it; What a dream I had, Pressed in organdy, Clothed in crinoline, Of smoky burgundy, Softer than the rain.

Replying to myself, after a bit of research, it seems like "wearing crinoline" is actually a marker for being more concerned with fashion (e.g.

On the other hand, there's also the book "Crusader in Crinoline: the Life of Harriet Beecher Stowe", and Stowe and Twain were next-door neighbors and friends.

Is "if they wore crinoline" an oblique way of saying "if they were women," or is it a turn of phrase meaning something else?

> "But," say the opponents of crinoline, "why carry a heavier burden than is absolutely necessary?" We reply that the tension of silks,...