take the starch out of
IdiomsExample Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The guys give off the impression, both online and in person, that they just want to take the starch out of this stuffed-shirt town.
From Washington Post • Feb. 27, 2023
Of these Merriwell was the leader, and it was agreed that every effort must be made to "take the starch" out of him.
From Frank Merriwell at Yale by Standish, Burt L.
If you can manage him here, rely on Grahame and me and a few others in New York, to take the starch out of him at home.
From The Art of Disappearing by Smith, John Talbot
Abraham, being a stranger bragged on by his employer they thought it was necessary to "take the starch out of him," so they put up their best man, Jack Armstrong to wrestle against Abraham.
From Boys' and Girls' Biography of Abraham Lincoln by Shaw, James H.
Then, he observed, he would "make him dance a jig that would take the starch out of him."
From Boyhood in Norway by Boyesen, Hjalmar Hjorth
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.
