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boiled shirt

American  

noun

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


boiled shirt British  

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

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.

See Examples For:

Will he turn worm and let himself be stuffed back into a boiled shirt?

From Time Magazine Archive

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

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

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

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