stuffed shirt
a pompous, self-satisfied, and inflexible person.
Origin of stuffed shirt
1Words Nearby stuffed shirt
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use stuffed shirt in a sentence
He had been herded into a corner by Johnson, Aunt Gretchen's stuffed shirt of a butler, who was standing guard over him.
"And That's How It Was, Officer" | Ralph SholtoNayland is a stuffed shirt of the first stuffing, and a tinpot Hitler to boot, but he is fanatically and incorruptibly patriotic.
The Mercenaries | Henry Beam PiperI'm tired of all that other crowd—the stuffed shirt brigade, you know.
The Salamander | Owen JohnsonHe characterized Frank Shabata by a Bohemian expression which is the equivalent of stuffed shirt.
O Pioneers! | Willa CatherHe turned to the crowd, which looked on in stunned silence, and tucked in his money-stuffed shirt.
Wunpost | Dane Coolidge
British Dictionary definitions for stuffed shirt
informal a pompous or formal person
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
Other Idioms and Phrases with stuffed shirt
An overly formal or pompous person, as in She's such a stuffed shirt that I'm surprised you'd invite her to a barbecue. This expression alludes to a shirt filled with paper (instead of a real person). [c. 1900]
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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