NounVintage & Colonial

Bum-Freezer

[buhm-free-zer]
Pan-Diaspora· 19th-century British military and Anglo-Indian colony slang for a short tailless jacket
Also spelled: mess jacket, eton coat

Community Definitions1

Definition #1

A short, waist-cut tailored jacket or Eton coat that terminates sharply at the hips without tails, popular for colonial mess dress and railway formal functions.

“In the sepia family portrait from 1938, Uncle Douglas looked dashing in his railway mess bum-freezer jacket.”

Pepperwater
Contributed by Pepperwater
Oct 18, 2026

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