TO TAKE THE STARCH OUT OF, verb. phr. (venery).—1.  To receive a man: see GREENS and RIDE.

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  2.  (colloquial).—To mortify; to humiliate; to abase another’s honour or dignity.

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  1888.  The Cornhill Magazine, Oct., 375. The free-born Westerner thinks the blamed Yankee puts on a yard too much style—the Boys don’t approve of style—and suavely proposes TO TAKE THE STARCH OUT OF HIM.

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