get one's shirt out

English

Etymology

From the custom of taking one's shirt off before fighting (after becoming annoyed).

Pronunciation

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Verb

get one's shirt out (third-person singular simple present gets one's shirt out, present participle getting one's shirt out, simple past got one's shirt out, past participle (UK) got one's shirt out or (US) gotten one's shirt out)

1. (idiomatic, dated) To become angry or annoyed; to lose one's temper.
   • 1883, Robert Harborough Sherard, A Bartered Honour: A Novel, Volume 1, Remington, page 183:

     "All right, sir, all right," said Chizzlem, lighting a huge cigar; "there it is, don't get your shirt out about it. I daresay I'll get along well enough without you. Though why you should be ashamed at what some of the flyest men do regularly, I can't tell."

   • 1922, James Joyce, Ulysses, Episode 12: The Cyclops:

     I dare him, says he, and I doubledare him to send you round here again or if he does, says he, I'll have him summonsed up before the court, so I will, for trading without a licence. And he after stuffing himself till he's fit to burst. Jesus, I had to laugh at the little jewy getting his shirt out.

Related terms

• keep one's shirt on
• shirty

References

• Brewer, Ebenezer Cobham. The Wordsworth Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, page 993. Wordsworth Editions, 2001.
• Farmer, John S. and Henley, W. E. A Dictionary of Slang and Colloquial English: Abridged from the Seven-volume, page 406. G. Routledge & Sons, Limited, 1905.
• Green, Jonathon. Cassell's Dictionary of Slang, page 585. Sterling Publishing Company, Inc., 2005.
• Partridge, Eric. A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, page 1052. Routledge, 2006.