Word.ws English Dictionary

let one's short back and sides down

let one's short back and sides down verb: to let one's hair down, especially on the part of a man who is very straight-laced.

Verb

let one's short back and sides down (third-person singular simple present lets one's short back and sides down, present participle letting one's short back and sides down, simple past and past participle let one's short back and sides down)

  1. (informal) To let one's hair down, especially on the part of a man who is very straight-laced.
    • It's on the way home that they let their hair down.' Well, only as much as you can let short-back-and-sides down.2008, Tom Gleeson, Playing Poker with the SAS: A Comedy Tour of Iraq and Afghanistan, →ISBN
    • Even a military man, though, can let his short back and sides down when national pride is to be celebrated.2012, Jeff Dawson, Back Home: England And The 1970 World Cup, →ISBN

Forms of let one's short back and sides down

third-person singular presentlets one's short back and sides down
present participleletting one's short back and sides down
past participlelet one's short back and sides down
pastlet one's short back and sides down

Questions about let one's short back and sides down

What does let one's short back and sides down mean?
Let one's short back and sides down means to let one's hair down, especially on the part of a man who is very straight-laced.
What part of speech is let one's short back and sides down?
Let one's short back and sides down is a verb.
What is the past tense of let one's short back and sides down?
The past tense of let one's short back and sides down is let one's short back and sides down.

Words near let one's short back and sides down in the dictionary

  1. let one rip
  2. let one's fingers do the walking
  3. let one's guard down
  4. let one's hair down
  5. let one's nuts hang
  6. let one's short back and sides down
  7. let oneself go
  8. let out
  9. let past
  10. let rip
  11. let sleeping dogs lie

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: let one's short back and sides down (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:

Cite this entry: “let one's short back and sides down.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/let_one%27s_short_back_and_sides_down. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.