shirtsleeves

Noun

shirtsleeves pl (plural only)

1. (plural, plural-only) Street clothes, without a jacket or special protection.
   • Even though there were dangerous chemicals about, they worked in their shirtsleeves rather than hazmat suits.
   • For children in shirtsleeves or summer dresses, the optimum temperature was 24.5 degrees Centigrade, and for children wearing jumpers or blazers, it was 21.5 degrees Centigrade.1973 December, MA Humphreys, “Classroom Temperature, Clothing and Thermal Comfort--A Study of Secondary School Children in Summertime. Building Research Establishment Current Paper 22/74”, in The...
2. (plural, plural-only) Non-professional status
   • (see title)1998, Nancy L. Stokey, “Shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves: the economics of social mobility”, in Frontiers of Research in Economic Theory, →ISBN
   • Then the retiree goes back to a real shirtsleeves again if he lives long enough.2006, Nobuhiro Kiyotaki, Alexander Michaelides, Kalin Nikolov, From Shirtsleeves to Shirtsleeves in a Long Lifetime, page 24