kleenices

As though kleenex were pluralized in the manner of Latin third declension nouns. By surface analysis, kleenex +‎ -i- +‎ -ces.

kleenices

1. (humorous) plural of kleenex
   • 1969, Scott Bates, “Fable of the Recalcitrant Sheet of Mimeograph Paper”, in The Carleton Miscellany, volume X, Northfield, Minn.: Carleton College, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 43:

     Let me be crumpled into cabbage / Peeled into carrot strips / Abandoned with the used kleenices holey hermit sacks outcast chewing gum wrappers and all the other paper pariahs of your so-called civilization […]

   • 1986, Mary Woods Bennett, A Career in Higher Education: Mills College, 1935-1974, Berkeley, Calif.: University of California at Berkeley, published 1987, →OCLC, page 153:

     One of the students wrote of her in a meeting following her death that she moved along the eucalyptus pathways like a ship in full sail, and there never was a truer statement. She owned it, and she would pick up the litter in her way. Lynn White once brought down the house in a similar meeting generations later speaking about Mrs. Reinhardt's tendency to pick up the "kleenices" [plural of kleenex] that she found-⁠- [laughs]

   • 1991 July 1, “Trademarked for life”, in The Press Democrat, 134th year, number 253, Santa Rosa, Calif., →ISSN, →OCLC, page D1, column 1:

     The U.S. Trademark Association, touchy about misuse of the 600,000 brands and slogans it has registered, just hates it when they’re used generically or uncapitalized. Or used as verbs, or made plural or possessive. So let’s not vick our chests, chapstick our lips or grab kleenexes (kleenices?) when we get the sniffles.

   • 2009 March 5, chris.ambidge@utoronto.ca, “suggestions?”, in soc.motss‎^[1] (Usenet), archived from the original on 12 July 2025:

     If you pull back the shower curtain there, you'll see that the bath is covered with a sheet of 5/8" plywood and has shelves atop. All sorts of stuff stored there, from the extra leaf to the dining table to the repair kits by way of iron and the stock of kleenices.

   • 2009 May 8, Dorothy J Heydt, “Time to retire?”, in rec.arts.sf.fandom‎^[2] (Usenet), archived from the original on 12 July 2025:

     Well, some seem to be expecting it at the moment. And just in case, I'm doing things like coughing into kleenices which I then put in the trash, washing my hands a lot, and not venturing upstairs at all because we have a fourteen-month baby up there.

   • 2011 January 17, David Hatunen, “Computer mouses or mice (or meeces)”, in alt.usage.english‎^[3] (Usenet), archived from the original on 12 July 2025:

     I expect they blow their noses in kleenices. It's a joke, son.

   • 2022 March 19, Peter Moylan, “Re: Paper Handkerchiefs”, in alt.usage.english‎^[4] (Usenet), archived from the original on 12 July 2025:

     I hear "tissue" most often, and "kleenex" rarely. I haven't checked lately which brands are most represented on the shelves, so it's possible that kleenices are no longer dominant on the market here.