warts and all

See also: warts-and-all

English

Oliver Cromwell, "warts and all"

Alternative forms

• warts-and-all

Etymology

In 1653, an artist, Samuel Cooper, was asked to paint Oliver Cromwell's portrait. Cromwell preferred the portrait to be shown with "pimples, warts and everything." (i.e., to include any defects and imperfections.) Over time, this phrase has come to be shortened to "warts and all".

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

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Adjective

warts and all (not comparable)

1. (idiomatic, informal, often hyphenated) Of or pertaining to a description or other depiction which reveals the full range of characteristics of a person or thing, including the shortcomings and imperfections.
   • 1957 October 14, “The Last Days of Freud”, in Time:

     Biographer Jones, for all his hero worship, belongs to the warts-and-all school, and notes some strange quirks in Freud's character.

Translations

of a description which does not conceal shortcomings or imperfections

• Dutch: wratten en al inbegrepen, in de staat waarin het zich bevindt
• Finnish: kaunistelematon (fi)
• Polish: ze wszystkimi przywarami
• Spanish: con todas sus imperfeccionescon verrugas y todo

Adverb

warts and all (not comparable)

1. (idiomatic, informal) In a manner which does not conceal shortcomings or imperfections.
   • 2003 January 14, Donna Freydkin, “Young and voyeuristic”, in USA Today:

     The new crop of reality shows brings us that much closer to the contestants, warts and all.

   • 2021 December 29, Paul Stephen, “Rail's accident investigators”, in RAIL, number 947, page 33:

     "We are very open and publish everything we investigate in detailed reports - warts and all," adds French.

Translations

in a manner which does not conceal shortcomings or imperfections

• Finnish: kaunistelematta (fi)
• Polish: bezdyskusyjnie (pl)
• Russian: со всеми недостатками (so vsemi nedostatkami), как есть (kak jestʹ), без прикрас (ru) (bez prikras)

See also

• bare all
• bare one's soul
• leave nothing to the imagination
• tell-all
• the gory details

References

• “warts and all”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• Oxford English Dictionary, second edition (1989)
• “warts and all”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.