2020, am I right? Well, we aren’t going to sit around and wait for another year to clobber us, and we aren’t going to get sucked in to a doomscrolling vortex either, no way. Together we will shirtfront 2021!
Shirtfronting is an act of intimidation, whether confronting someone aggressively and indignantly with a complaint or grievance, or literally grabbing them by the lapels. Made famous by former Prime Minister Tony Abbott, shirtfronting is usually confined to the sports field, rather than Parliament house. In Australian Rules football, shirtfronting is when you shoulder charge an opponent with the intention of knocking them to the ground.
In cricket, a shirtfront refers to an extremely smooth pitch that favours batters over bowlers. Yes, that means I could get shirtfronted and land on the shirtfront.
Each week, we have a look at a slang word from Australian English. You can see other Aussie Word of the Week posts from the Macquarie Dictionary here.
