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take the starch out of
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Idioms and Phrases
Deflate or ridicule someone, as in That practical joke at the office party really took the starch out of Nick . This expression, first recorded in 1840, alludes to the starch used to stiffen a shirt.Advertisement
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.
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