Idiom
get one's shirt out
Meaning
To become angry or annoyed; to lose one's temper.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“Don't get your shirt out over such a small mistake.”
“She gets her shirt out when the bus arrives late.”
“He tends to get his shirt out whenever someone criticizes his work during the meeting.”
“My neighbor usually gets his shirt out if the local children play music too loudly near his garden on Sunday mornings.”
“You should avoid bringing up the budget right now because the director might get his shirt out before you finish the presentation.”
“The manager warned the team that he would get his shirt out if they failed to meet the deadline for the third time this month.”
Examples
simple
“Don't get your shirt out over such a small mistake.”
“She gets her shirt out when the bus arrives late.”
contextual
“He tends to get his shirt out whenever someone criticizes his work during the meeting.”
“My neighbor usually gets his shirt out if the local children play music too loudly near his garden on Sunday mornings.”
“You should avoid bringing up the budget right now because the director might get his shirt out before you finish the presentation.”
complex
“The manager warned the team that he would get his shirt out if they failed to meet the deadline for the third time this month.”
Origin
The idiom arises from the practical custom of removing one's shirt before engaging in a physical altercation, a gesture typically performed after one had become sufficiently annoyed. The removal of the garment served both to preserve the cloth from damage and to deny an opponent a convenient handhold during the ensuing struggle. The phrase remains a linguistic artifact of the moment formal disagreement transitioned into manual labour.
Key words
Related idioms
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