shirtfront

plural shirtfronts

1. The front part of a shirt.

   In the Victorian Era, exposing your shirtfront in public was considered improper, as shirts were viewed as undergarments. Waistcoats concealed this and helped [to] tame oversized, billowy shirts.

   2025 September 12, Jack Collins, “Why Did Men Stop Wearing Three-Piece Suits?”, in Gentleman's Gazette

2. A detachable insert that simulates the front of a shirt.

   I liked the man for his own sake, and even had he promised to turn out a celebrity it would have had no weight with me. I look upon notoriety with the same indifference as on the buttons on a man's shirt-front, or the crest on his note-paper.

   1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter I, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC

3. ball gamesA pitch that is easy to bat on.
4. Australian rules footballA head-on charge aimed at bumping an opponent to the ground.
5. slangbusinessAn attractive facade applied only to the front of a house.

   False fronts, frequently called "shirt fronts," are futile attempts to make a small, cheap house pass for something larger and more valuable.

   1967, The Appraisal of Real Estate, page 132

   1 more example

   It is explained that a "shirt front" building is one of which only the street elevation is given a finished architectural treatment, the sides and back being of cheaper material, with no attempt at unification with the front.

   1927, The Bricklayer, Mason and Plasterer, volumes 30-32, page 100

present singular third person shirtfronts · participle present shirtfronting · participle past shirtfronted · past shirtfronted

1. AustraliatransitivegovernmentTo confront in a threatening manner.

   This was a case of a deputy shirtfronting her leader with an ultimatum and forcing a decision that would come close to wrecking the government's environmental credibility.

   2014, Philip Chubb, Power Failure

   1 more example

   Pravda has described Tony Abbott as “a disturbed mind crying out for therapy”: after his threat to “shirtfront” the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, in Brisbane.

   2014 October 14, “Pravda lashes Tony Abbott as 'disturbed' over threat to shirtfront Vladimir Putin”, in The Guardian