shirt-sleeve
or shirt·sleeve, shirt-sleeved, shirt-sleeves
not wearing a jacket; informally dressed: a shirt-sleeve mob.
warm enough to live or work in without wearing a jacket or coat: shirt-sleeve weather in November.
simple, plain, and informal; direct and straightforward in approach, manner, etc.: shirt-sleeve diplomacy.
Origin of shirt-sleeve
1Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use shirt-sleeve in a sentence
There have been state visits, the Strategic and Economic Dialogues, and now this upcoming “shirtsleeves summit.”
At the U.S.-China Summit, Friendship Isn’t What Matters | Gordon G. Chang | June 7, 2013 | THE DAILY BEASTHe is a slightly built New Englander, in tie and shirtsleeves, whose sense of humor is about as dry and incendiary as kindling.
Joe McQuaid: Union Leader Publisher Is GOP Kingmaker in New Hampshire | Lloyd Grove | December 19, 2011 | THE DAILY BEASTYou can serve him up at a formal Sunday dinner, or in shirtsleeves at a casual summer bar-b-que.
A man does not remove his coat or sit in his shirtsleeves in any of the public rooms.
The Complete Bachelor | Walter GermainHe was in his shirtsleeves—a respectable, snuffy old figure; evidently a man deliberate in words and thoughts and actions.
The Escape of Mr. Trimm | Irvin S. Cobb
In his shirtsleeves he climbed into the buggy, and the constable turned his horse and clucked him into a trot.
The Escape of Mr. Trimm | Irvin S. CobbHe was in his shirtsleeves; his tender feet were incased in a pair of red-and-green carpet slippers.
The Escape of Mr. Trimm | Irvin S. CobbHappy Jack wiped his hands upon an empty flour sack, rolled down his shirtsleeves and hurried off to saddle a horse.
The Happy Family | Bertha Muzzy Bower
British Dictionary definitions for shirtsleeve
/ (ˈʃɜːtˌsliːv) /
the sleeve of a shirt
in one's shirtsleeves not wearing a jacket
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
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