get one's shirt out
get one's shirt out verb: to become angry or annoyed; to lose one's temper.
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)
- To become angry or annoyed; to lose one's temper.
- "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."1883, Robert Harborough Sherard, A Bartered Honour: A Novel, Volume 1, Remington, page 183
- 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.1922, James Joyce, Ulysses, Episode 12: The Cyclops
Forms of get one's shirt out
| third-person singular present | gets one's shirt out |
|---|---|
| present participle | getting one's shirt out |
| past | got one's shirt out |
| past participle UK | got one's shirt out |
| past participle US | gotten one's shirt out |
Origin of get one's shirt out
From the custom of taking one's shirt off before fighting (after becoming annoyed).
Questions about get one's shirt out
- What does get one's shirt out mean?
- Get one's shirt out means to become angry or annoyed; to lose one's temper.
- What part of speech is get one's shirt out?
- Get one's shirt out is a verb.
- What is the past tense of get one's shirt out?
- The past tense of get one's shirt out is got one's shirt out.
Words near get one's shirt out in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: get one's shirt out (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-get one's shirt out.ogg.
Cite this entry: “get one's shirt out.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/get_one%27s_shirt_out. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
