Clothing idioms: Phrazle Clothing

Idioms about clothing

This category covers phrases about what people wear: hats and caps, coats and shirts, shoes and boots, gloves, sleeves, collars, socks and pants, and also buttons and laundry. In these idioms clothes usually stand for a role or a position. Putting on a hat means taking on a job, stepping into shoes means taking someone's place, and a coat or a uniform shows whose side you are on.

Clothing idioms are common because clothes were long the clearest sign of who a person was. A judge, a soldier, a farmer and a lord could be told apart at a glance by what they wore, and clothes were valuable enough to be mended, handed down and talked about. When a phrase says someone changed their coat, every listener knew exactly what kind of person that was.

Every puzzle on this page is a clothing phrase. Short words such as HAT, CAP, BOOT, SHOE, SOCK and SHIRT are good letters to test early.

Clothing idioms and what they mean

None of these examples is used as a puzzle, so reading them will not spoil a game.

• Pull yourself up by your bootstraps: to improve your situation by your own effort, without help. In the 1800s it described something impossible, since nobody can lift themselves by tugging at their own boots.
• Pass the hat: to collect money from a group, for example for a gift or a good cause. Street performers and organizers literally passed a hat around for coins.
• Pin money: a small sum for little extras. It once meant an allowance a husband gave his wife for personal expenses such as pins, which were costly before they were made by machine.
• Turncoat: a person who changes sides. The usual explanation is that soldiers wore coats in their side's color, and a deserter turned his coat inside out.
• Bigwig: an important person. In the 1600s and 1700s men of high rank wore large powdered wigs, and the bigger the wig, the grander the man.
• Straitlaced: very strict about rules and behavior. "Strait" means tight, and the word first described a bodice or corset laced tightly.
• Bluestocking: a woman with strong intellectual or literary interests. It comes from a London literary circle of the 1750s whose gatherings were so informal that one guest came in everyday blue wool stockings.
• Buttonhole: to stop someone and keep them talking, whether they like it or not. It grew out of an older picture of holding a listener by a button of their coat.

Clothing idioms FAQ