Meaning & use

shirtwaist

noun·Advanced

A woman's blouse tailored to resemble a man's shirt, or a dress with a bodice styled the same way, popular in the early 1900s.

See it in a sentence

The factory workers in the famous 1911 fire were mostly young women sewing shirtwaists.

Historical photographs often show women of the era wearing a shirtwaist tucked into a long skirt.

A note on using this word

The shirtwaist became a symbol of early twentieth-century working women and is closely linked to the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire.

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