the shirt off one's back

noun

Everything currently in the possession of a person.

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Meanings

nounthe shirt off one's back (plural not attested)
  1. idiomaticno pluralEverything currently in the possession of a person.

    Please, gentlemen. The men in there just took my money. I can't get robbed twice in one day! What do you want, the shirt off my back? Come on.

    2009, Dan Houser, Rupert Humphries, Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned, Rockstar Games, Xbox 360, level/area: Roman's Holiday
    2 more examples

    "I don't plan on selling my Nuclear shares," replied Lillis. "But I've been on Wall Street for fifty years, and if there's one thing I learned, it's that at the right price I'd sell the shirt off my back."

    1991, Richard Preston, American Steel: Hot Metal Men and the Resurrection of the Rust Belt, New York: Prentice Hall Press, →ISBN, page 89

    Though a good guy who'd give the shirt off his back to a friend, Brady Buchanon was a formidable enemy. They all were. Buchanons protected their own.

    2014, Linda Goodnight, Cowboy Under the Mistletoe, New York: Harlequin, →ISBN, page 78
Cite this entry
APA

the shirt off one's back. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/the%20shirt%20off%20one's%20back

MLA

“the shirt off one's back.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/the%20shirt%20off%20one's%20back. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “the shirt off one's back,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/the%20shirt%20off%20one's%20back.

Source: the shirt off one's back on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.