whole cloth

(Redirected from out of whole cloth)

English edit

Pronunciation edit

  • (file)

Noun edit

whole cloth (countable and uncountable, plural whole cloths)

  1. A newly made textile which has not yet been cut.
  2. (uncountable, figurative, used attributively or preceded by various prepositions) The fictitious material from which complete fabrications, lies with no basis in truth, are made.
    Mr. Doe's account of the accident was made from whole cloth.
  3. (uncountable) Something made completely new, with no history, and not based on anything else.
    The plans for the widget were drawn from whole cloth.

Synonyms edit

Translations edit

Adverb edit

whole cloth (not comparable)

  1. (idiomatic) in full extent, wholesale, entirely, without changes or additions
    • 2012 May 31, Tasha Robinson, “Film: Review: Snow White And The Huntsman”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name)[1]:
      Some are strangely detailed, like the hugely antlered white deer-creature-cum-forest-god seemingly stolen whole cloth from Princess Mononoke.

Translations edit

Further reading edit