Idiom
birthday suit
Meaning
Nakedness, unclothed skin; an exposure of a human's natural anatomy without clothing.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“He jumped in the lake in his birthday suit.”
“You should not walk to the mailbox in your birthday suit.”
“The cat stares at me whenever I am in my birthday suit.”
“The toddler ran through the house in his birthday suit after escaping from the bath.”
“The locker room was full of athletes in their birthday suits as they prepared to head into the showers after the game.”
“I forgot to bring a towel to the pool, so I had to stand there in my birthday suit until my friend found one.”
“The artist's controversial photograph depicted the subject in nothing but her birthday suit, challenging viewers to reconsider cultural attitudes toward the unclothed body.”
Examples
simple
“He jumped in the lake in his birthday suit.”
“You should not walk to the mailbox in your birthday suit.”
“The cat stares at me whenever I am in my birthday suit.”
contextual
“The toddler ran through the house in his birthday suit after escaping from the bath.”
“The locker room was full of athletes in their birthday suits as they prepared to head into the showers after the game.”
“I forgot to bring a towel to the pool, so I had to stand there in my birthday suit until my friend found one.”
complex
“The artist's controversial photograph depicted the subject in nothing but her birthday suit, challenging viewers to reconsider cultural attitudes toward the unclothed body.”
Origin
First recorded in the mid-18th century, the phrase relies on the observation that one arrives at birth entirely unburdened by tailoring. It serves as a polite substitution for nakedness, suggesting that the skin itself constitutes the only garment worn at the moment of delivery.
Key words
Related idioms
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