Arm warmers are knitted 'sleeves' worn on the arms. Sometimes worn by dancers to warm up their bodies before class, they have also become somewhat of a fashion item, appearing in the fall.
Arm warmers can also describe any glove-like articles of clothing that lack finger coverings and/or were originally designed to keep wrists and lower arms warm. Today, many competition and sport bicyclists as well as distance runners/marathoners wear spandex-compression arm-warmers.
Various sub-cultures, such as the punk, emo and goth subcultures, have also adopted arm warmers as a fashion statement. Stores such as Hot Topic sell arm warmers with chains and designs of skulls, piano keys, band logos, and other alternative inspired designs.
Recently (in mid-late 2000), cyclists have adopted them for use in cold weather. For the 2010 FIFA World Cup, arm warmers featuring the participating national teams became a phenomenon in the host country South Africa and abroad.
Famous quotes containing the words arm and/or warmer:
“Four-room shack aspiring high
With an arm of scrawny mast
For the visions in the sky
That go blindly pouring past.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“You waves, though you dance by my feet like children at play,
Though you glow and you glance, though you purr and you dart;
In the Junes that were warmer than these are, the waves were more gay,
When I was a boy with never a crack in my heart.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)