stuffed shirt

WOTD – 6 November 2010

English[edit]

This entry lacks etymological information. If you are familiar with the origin of this term, please add it to the page as described here.

stuffed shirt (plural stuffed shirts)

(idiomatic) One who is pompous or self-important, especially one who is officious in a position of authority.
- 1914, Samuel Hopkins Adams, The Clarion, ch. 30:
  
  "Don't you come the high-and-holy on me. You and your smooth, big, phony stuffed-shirt of a father."
- 1952, "Medicine: Mind Matters," Time, 26 May:
  
  Dr. Laughlin was the only one in a movie party who detested the second male lead—"I regarded him as overserious, pedantic, a stuffed shirt."
(usually hyphenated) Used attributively.
- 2000, Frederik Balfour, "Return of a Hong Kong Highflier ," BusinessWeek, 10 July:
  
  The opportunistic style that was the bank's trademark still prevails and continues to attract talented young Hong Kongers looking for an alternative to the stuffed-shirt culture of most U.S. and European banks.

one who is overly-officious