shirt
Americannoun
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shirts
plural
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a long- or short-sleeved garment for the upper part of the body, usually lightweight and having a collar and a front opening.
-
an undergarment of cotton, or other material, for the upper part of the body.
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a shirtwaist.
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a nightshirt.
idioms
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in one's shirt sleeves, without a coat: Also in one's shirt-sleeves.
It was so hot that they worked in their shirt sleeves.
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lose one's shirt, to lose all that one possesses; suffer a severe financial reverse.
He lost his shirt in the stock market.
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keep one's shirt on, to refrain from becoming angry or impatient; remain calm.
Tell him to keep his shirt on until we're ready.
noun
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a garment worn on the upper part of the body, esp by men, usually of light material and typically having a collar and sleeves and buttoning up the front
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short for nightshirt undershirt
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informal refrain from losing your temper (often used as an exhortation to another)
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informal to bet all one has on (a horse, etc)
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informal to lose all one has on (a horse, etc)
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of shirt
before 1150; Middle English schirte, Old English scyrte; cognate with German Schürze, Dutch schort apron, Old Norse skyrta skirt
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
As insurance, I tuck my shirt in, pull my socks over my pant legs, and wear ankle-covering gaiters.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 4, 2026
When he appeared on television one evening, his flatmates realised the boy from accounting class wore the number six shirt for Villarreal.
From BBC ● Oct. 3, 2026
How could it be that the elf in a button-down shirt now looked like someone’s cool bisexual cousin!
From Slate ● Oct. 3, 2026
The young executive brings an unconventional style to the tech giant, turning up to its development conference in a thrift-store camouflage shirt.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 3, 2026
It’s a red shirt, his red flag, reaching to pull me out of the depths of the endless sticky mud, and I feel again, my fingers slip through his.
From "Red Flags and Butterflies" by Sheryl Azzam
We were dressed in our rancho libertarian best: jeans, embroidered leather belts, pearl snap shirts.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 3, 2026
Palmer Luckey, 34-year-old co-founder of Anduril, is building the world’s next frontier of warfare for the Pentagon but wears a uniform of exclusively Hawaiian shirts and cargo shorts.
From Slate ● Oct. 3, 2026
But if the gambles fail, the clients lose their shirts, but the managers do not have to cover 20% of the losses.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 1, 2026
Their team-mates and the Elche players continued to wear the shirts through the pre-match formalities.
From BBC ● Sep. 16, 2026
He sees me in the same moment and is so surprised he drops the shirts he’s carrying.
From "Across So Many Seas" by Ruth Behar
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
