What it means
Means irritable, touchy, or weirdly snappy for no proper reason. If someone’s getting shirty, they’re coming out with little digs, sighing like it’s a full-time job, and acting like the tiniest hassle is everyone else’s fault. It’s usually a mild telling-off, not a proper insult, and it fits those pre-coffee moods perfectly.
Usage examples
"Oi, don’t get shirty, yeah? I only asked if you wanted a brew. You’ve been huffing round the kitchen like the toaster owes you money."
"Do not get shirty with the new kid at the bus stop just because he asked for the time, he probably forgot his phone at the gym and the rain is coming down sideways already."
"She got proper shirty when the supermarket ran out of the granola she likes, sighed loudly at the assistant and walked out without buying anything else, total Saturday morning energy."
"He got a bit shirty when I said his parallel park was hanging out in two postcodes, proper muttering to himself all the way down the road."
"Why’re you getting shirty with me for, I just said the Wi-Fi died. It’s not like I unplugged the house for a laugh."
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Where it comes from
It’s solid British English. Shirty is recorded from the early 1840s meaning bad-tempered or touchy, and it’s widely linked to the older phrase get your shirt out, which meant to lose your temper. Same mood, same little flare-up energy, just trimmed down into one snappy adjective.
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