Word.ws English Dictionary

straight shirttails

straight shirttails is the plural of straight shirttail.

Meaning of straight shirttail

Noun

straight shirttail (plural straight shirttails)

  1. (US, dated) A very hurried journey or movement, especially in return to a previous location; a dash.
    • The other boat closed with them. They had seen the seal basking on a low rock, but he was wary, and as soon as they came in sight, he flounced off the rock into the water, and made 'straight shirt-tails,' as the Yankees say, Allan taking a snap shot at him just ere he did so; but whether he had...1860 September, Francis Francis, “The Experiences of Sydney Godolphin Yahoo, Esq.”, in Baily's Magazine of Sports and Pastimes, page 400

Questions about straight shirttails

What is straight shirttails the plural of?
Straight shirttails is the plural of straight shirttail.

Words near straight shirttails in the dictionary

  1. straight red
  2. straight red card
  3. straight red cards
  4. straight reds
  5. straight shirttail
  6. straight shirttails
  7. straight shooter
  8. straight shooters
  9. straight sinus
  10. straight sinuses
  11. straight supremacy

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: straight shirttails (page history and authors); straight shirttail (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.

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