boiled shirt
Americannoun
noun
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.
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
"Bill," he asked, "do you ever expect to wear a boiled shirt all the week and sleep till after sun-up?"
From A Yankee from the West A Novel by Read, Opie Percival
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 Stockley, Cynthia
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.
