wear on one's sleeve
wear on one's sleeve verb: to express (an emotion, belief, or stance) overtly and make it an important part of one's public life.
Verb
wear on one's sleeve (third-person singular simple present wears on one's sleeve, present participle wearing on one's sleeve, simple past wore on one's sleeve, past participle worn on one's sleeve)
- To express (an emotion, belief, or stance) overtly and make it an important part of one's public life.
- But religion is the one thing they encourage you to wear on your sleeve.2008 June 25, Neela Banerjee, “Religion and Its Role Are in Dispute at the Service Academies”, in New York Times
- While he may wear his idealism and good-heartedness on his shirt sleeve, his passion is exuded more as an intellectualized than as a deeply felt quality. In modulating his voice, that is, Canin has chosen a character whose temperance might be admirable among the living but is less engaging when...2008 June 28, Art Winslow, “Ethan Canin's "America, America"”, in Chicago Tribune, archived from the original on 21 May 2009
Forms of wear on one's sleeve
| third-person singular present | wears on one's sleeve |
|---|---|
| present participle | wearing on one's sleeve |
| past | wore on one's sleeve |
| past participle | worn on one's sleeve |
Origin of wear on one's sleeve
This phrase may derive from a mediaeval custom at jousting matches. Knights are said to have worn the colours of the lady they were supporting, in cloths or ribbons tied to their arms. The term does not date from that period though, and is first recorded in Shakespeare's Othello, 1604, in which the treacherous Iago's plan was to feign openness and vulnerability in order to appear faithful.
Questions about wear on one's sleeve
- What does wear on one's sleeve mean?
- Wear on one's sleeve means to express (an emotion, belief, or stance) overtly and make it an important part of one's public life.
- What part of speech is wear on one's sleeve?
- Wear on one's sleeve is a verb.
- What is the past tense of wear on one's sleeve?
- The past tense of wear on one's sleeve is wore on one's sleeve.
Words near wear on one's sleeve in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: wear on one's sleeve (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: “wear on one's sleeve.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/wear_on_one%27s_sleeve. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.