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Thursday, October 1, 2020

English Idioms Involving Clothes

My students know how I love idioms.  A.Word.A.Day. featured idioms involving clothes recently.  




Fancy Pants

noun: Someone attractive, silly, or pretentious.
adjective: Snobbish; pretentious; newfangled; overly complicated. 


Shirtsleeve

adjective:
1. Relating to pleasant warm weather.
2. Informal; direct.
3. Hardworking; having a can-do attitude.


Trouser role

noun:
In opera, drama, film, etc.:
1. A role in which a female character pretends to be a male.
2. A male part played by a female actor.
Also known as a breeches role or a pants role.


Brownshirt 

noun: A member of police or military trained for carrying out a sudden assault, especially one marked by brutality and violence.


Seat-of-the-Pants 

adjective:

1. Using experience, instinct, or guesswork as opposed to methodical planning.
2. Done without instruments.



To Keep One's Shirt on - refrain from losing one's temper 

To Lose One's Shirt - to lose everything 

To Wear the Pants in a Relationship - to be the dominant partner 

To Catch Someone with Their Pants Down - to catch someone in an embarrasing situation 


Do you know any other clothing related idioms?

7 comments:

  1. I enjoy these too, they just make learning English confusing for the Japanese students though .

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  2. I often use 'take my hat off to xx' when I see some fantastic stitching on a blog

    then there are: 'at the drop of a hat', tied to Mum's apron strings', 'under the belt', 'up one's sleeve', off the cuff, 'he's a slipper', 'blue stocking', white collar worker', 'with cap in hand'....

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  3. I'm not familiar with "shirtsleeve" as an adjective. Here it is used more in the form of "roll up your shirtsleeves", meaning get ready to do some hard work.

    To "shirtfront" someone is an Australian expression which got an article on the BBC when a former Prime Minister used it:
    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-30173969

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  4. How funny ! THANKS, Pam :)
    xoxo
    Nadine

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  5. Shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in four generations. Don't get your knickers in a knot.

    I've got to think of more -- I know there are some!

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  6. Thanks for the smiles this morning.
    xx, Carol

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  7. I knew most of these, but not all of them! I love learning something new.

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