The Australian prime minister's threat to "shirtfront" Russia's president during an international summit this month has prompted a dictionary to broaden its definition of the word beyond an Australian football term for a shoulder charge to an opponent's chest.

Russian officials ridiculed the threat made by prime minister Tony Abbott at a news conference last month, warning that President Vladimir Putin was a judo expert.

Susan Butler, editor of the Macquarie Dictionary, the definitive authority on Australian English, said the controversy made her editors realise that the term had taken on a broader meaning in recent decades than an illegal manoeuvre on the football field.