shirt-sleeves

shirt-sleeves is the plural of shirt-sleeve.

shirt-sleeves is the alternative form of shirt sleeves.

Meaning of shirt-sleeve

shirt-sleeve (not comparable)

Having an informal, relaxed appearance or approach, particularly in business.
- He had a shirt-sleeve style of management.
(space flight) That allows working without the need of wearing a spacesuit.
- The Exploration Cooling Garment shall allow a crewmember to maintain their nominal shirt-sleeve range of motion.2008, Janet Ferl, Linda Hewes, Lindsay Aitchinson, Victor Koscheyev, Gloria Leon, Ed Hodgson, Frank Sneeringer, “Trade Study of an Exploration Cooling Garment”, in 38th International Conference on...

shirt sleeves pl (plural only)

(plural, plural-only) Preceded by in: wearing only a shirt without a coat, jacket, or comparable protective covering over it.
- A bunch of workmen were lying on the grass of the park beside Macquarie Street, in the dinner hour. It was winter, the end of May, but the sun was warm, and they lay there in shirt-sleeves, talking.1923, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “Torestin”, in Kangaroo, London: Martin Secker […], →OCLC, page 1
(broadly, plural, plural-only) A working-class socioeconomic status (not requiring a professional business jacket).
- It is to Andrew Carnegie that the expression is attributed in America, "There are only two generations between shirt sleeves and shirt sleeves," The remark is certainly not original with the genial Scot, who is playing such a successful " star engagement " before the American people, nevertheless...2005, Erastus Wiman, Chances of Success: Episodes and Observations in the Life of a Busy Man, →ISBN

What is shirt-sleeves the plural of?: Shirt-sleeves is the plural of shirt-sleeve.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “shirt-sleeves.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/shirt-sleeves. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.