or biled-shirt, boiled-rag, subs. phr. (American).—A white shirt: cf. BALD-FACED SHIRT.
1869. A. K. MCCLURE, Three Thousand Miles through the Rocky Mountains, 412. In order to [attend the Governor’s reception], I borrowed a ‘BOILED SHIRT,’ … and plunged in with a Byron collar and polished boots,—and also the other necessary apparel.
18[?]. BURTON, Songs [BARTLETT].
| ’T was only last night, sure, they gave me a call | |
| To deliver a lecture at Hibernia Hall. | |
| I put on a BILED SHIRT, and hastened there quick, | |
| But the blackguards did serve me the divil’s own trick. |
1869. S. L. CLEMENS (‘Mark Twain’), The Innocents at Home, xii. They had a particular and malignant animosity toward what they called a BILED SHIRT.
1872. Dublin University Magazine, Feb., 219. Every man arrays himself in ‘store-clothes’ and BOILED SHIRTS.
1888. New York World, 13 May. Is it possible that the Chicagoans never heard of white shirts before this spring? May-be the street-railway presidents never saw a starched shirt (I must deplore the use of the word BILED as applied to shirts) until this year.
