Meaning of shoot one's cuffs | Babel Free

Definitions

To straighten one's arms with a sudden movement to make the cuffs of one's shirt appear beyond the sleeves of one's coat or jacket.

Examples

“Take⟳ a pretty young man from behind the desk or the counter. He must be possessed of consummate vanity. Teach⟳ him to shoot⟳ his cuffs, square his elbows, and brandish his pocket handkerchief.”

“The room filled with hesitancy as with a fog. People cleared their throats, tried to choke down yawns. The men shot their cuffs and the women stuck their combs more firmly into their back hair.”

“Di, Di, in her collar and tie, / Quizzes the girls with a monocled eye, / Sipping her hock in a black satin stock⟳, / Or shooting her cuffs over pernod or bock …”

“A visitor would immediately identify⟳ Sherwood [Blount] as the leader of the group by his strong, self-conscious stage⟳ presence. He cocks his head and shoots his cuffs and swaggers a little when he walks and winks and does double-takes, holding all these gestures for a long second to make⟳ sure they register⟳ on his audience.”

“He was the king of stage⟳ presentation. When Duke [Ellington] would be playing he'd do a kind of jig, peckin' round the stage⟳, and every time he'd shoot⟳ his cuffs he made his coat tail go up. Then he'd pull⟳ his coat down – and up went his cuffs!”

CEFR level