shirt

The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English | 2009 | 700+ words | Copyright

shirt / shərt/ • n. a garment for the upper body made of cotton or a similar fabric, with a collar, sleeves, and buttons down the front. ∎ a similar garment of stretchable material with few or no buttons, typically worn as casual wear or for sports: a rugby shirt. PHRASES: keep your shirt on inf. don't lose your temper; stay calm. lose one's shirt inf. lose all one's possessions. the shirt off one's back inf. one's last remaining possessions: we share things—we'd give our shirt off our back to another.DERIVATIVES: shirt·ed adj. [often in comb.] the black-shirted balladeer. shirt·less adj. ORIGIN: Old English scyrte, of Germanic origin; related to Old Norse skyrta (compare with skirt), Dutch schort, German Schürze ‘apron,’ also to short; probably from a base meaning ‘short garment.’

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