boiled shirt


noun
  1. a formal or semiformal dress shirt with a starched front.

Origin of boiled shirt

1
An Americanism dating back to 1850–55

Words Nearby boiled shirt

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use boiled shirt in a sentence

  • He had been known to remark: "The sight of a bloke in a boiled shirt makes me sick."

  • The village treasurer wore a "boiled shirt" and brass collar-buttons, but no collar or coat.

    On a Donkey's Hurricane Deck | R. Pitcher Woodward
  • It was a French civilian in evening dress—boiled shirt, white tie, and all—with a bowler hat bent to the storm.

    Now It Can Be Told | Philip Gibbs
  • Phelan exploded, jumping to his feet and turning white as his boiled shirt.

    Officer 666 | Barton W. Currie
  • Doudney came to the door in his bare feet, buttoning his suspenders over a clean boiled shirt.

    Prairie Folks | Hamlin Garland

British Dictionary definitions for boiled shirt

boiled shirt

noun
  1. informal a dress shirt with a stiff front

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012