give the shirt off one's back



give the shirt off one's back

Give anything and everything one possesses. For example, Tom is truly generous-he'll give you the shirt off his back. This hyperbolic idiom was first recorded in 1771.
See also: back, give, off, shirt

Common Names:

NameGenderPronouncedUsage
Emory['eməri]
Keren-HappuchKER-ən HAP-ook (English)Biblical
FredFRED (English, French, Portuguese), FRET (Dutch, German)English, Dutch, German, French, Portuguese
Nkruma-Western African, Akan
SaraSAH-rah (Spanish, Finnish, Dutch, Polish), ZAH-rah (German), SER-ə (English), SAR-ə (English), SAH:-rah (Arabic)Greek, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Catalan, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Icelandic, Finnish, German
Wigmund-Anglo-Saxon