to buy the T-shirt
- idiom
- Informal
:
haber pasado por eso
- I've bought the T-shirt when it comes to difficult jobs—I know exactly how it feels.
Examples
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She said she's bought the T-shirt with online dating and isn't interested anymore.
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He claimed to have handled dozens of big projects, bought the T-shirt, and now wants a new challenge.
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I already bought the T-shirt on my last trip.
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He always buys the T-shirt when he travels.
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I've bought the T-shirt when it comes to difficult jobs—I know exactly how it feels.
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She said she's bought the T-shirt with online dating and isn't interested anymore.
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He claimed to have handled dozens of big projects, bought the T-shirt, and now wants a new challenge.
Synonyms
A phrase people say to show they have done something before and are not impressed
Antonyms
How Experienced
Surface Forms
Morphology
buy + the + T-shirt
The phrase is motivated by the literal idea that buying a T‑shirt (a souvenir) signals firsthand experience, so there is a detectable pragmatic/metaphorical link to ‘having been through something.’ However, the conventionalized idiomatic sense (familiarity, boredom, or having moved on) is not fully predictable from the bare meanings of ‘buy’ + ‘the’ + ‘T‑shirt’ and would likely require prior exposure, making it only partially transparent.
Etymology
The idiom buy the T-shirt comes from people buying a souvenir T-shirt at an event to show they were there; the shirt acts as proof you experienced it. So, to say you buy the T-shirt means 'you have direct experience' or 'you already know it'.