boiled shirt
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of boiled shirt
An Americanism dating back to 1850–55
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.
Will he turn worm and let himself be stuffed back into a boiled shirt?
From Time Magazine Archive
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Trickier to get on and off than an old-fashioned boiled shirt, hemmed in by a landscape as disheveled as a Congressman's collar, the trapped and trammeled Washington-Hoover Airport has since 1926 been a fliers' nightmare.
From Time Magazine Archive
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In the midst of this week's heat wave, CBS gave a Sunday broadcast of music that was as distinguished, and as warmly unseasonal, as a boiled shirt.
From Time Magazine Archive
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Attired in purple, he goes by with hard boiled shirt and scrambled tie, and you can hear his bullion clank as he goes prancing to the bank.
From Rippling Rhymes by Walt Mason
Yes, I know," said Bramham, pushing back his chair and regarding them—"a boiled shirt with a flopping front to it like yours, and poker with a lot of perpetual growlers.
From Poppy The Story of a South African Girl by Cynthia Stockley
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.