whole cloth
noun
: pure fabrication
—usually used in the phrase out of whole cloth
the theory was created out of whole cloth
Examples of whole cloth in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Soccer in general and the Premier League in particular have a gift for spinning controversy from whole cloth, but this did not seem an especially compelling candidate for the hot-take treatment.
—
Rory Smith, New York Times, 1 Mar. 2024
The Republican politicians who Trump owns, and whose genitals are kept in glass jars at Mar-a-Lago for the guests to see, have even been creating, out of whole cloth, just to please the boss, the notion that Swift is some kind of political secret double-agent acting on behalf of Joe Biden.
—Joe Soucheray, Twin Cities, 3 Feb. 2024
Anwar Haneef, general manager and head of ecosystems at Canva, maintains that Canva users often want to make custom designs or iterate on them rather than have an AI engine generate something from whole cloth.
—Lauren Goode, WIRED, 10 Jan. 2024
In attempting to build a new settlement out of whole cloth, these tech moguls are following a tradition started nearly a century ago by other American industrialists, who built company towns around their mills, and utopians who built remote communities in line with their social beliefs.
—Irina Ivanova, Fortune, 30 Aug. 2023
This year, especially, electoral work has meant battling moral panics stoked by the right on social media, sometimes imported virtually whole cloth from the right wing in the United States.
—Kate Aronoff, The New Republic, 17 Oct. 2022
The rough congruence validates that the Roman Catholic Church in Quebec didn’t make records out of whole cloth, but there were likely fudges, guesses, and deceptions on the margins.
—Razib Khan, Discover Magazine, 24 Jan. 2011
This industry was created out of whole cloth and it’s changed the world.
—Antonio Ferme, Variety, 9 Mar. 2022
Why would Erika make this up out of whole cloth?
—Brian Moylan, Vulture, 15 Sep. 2021
Rory Smith, New York Times, 1 Mar. 2024
The Republican politicians who Trump owns, and whose genitals are kept in glass jars at Mar-a-Lago for the guests to see, have even been creating, out of whole cloth, just to please the boss, the notion that Swift is some kind of political secret double-agent acting on behalf of Joe Biden.
—Joe Soucheray, Twin Cities, 3 Feb. 2024
Anwar Haneef, general manager and head of ecosystems at Canva, maintains that Canva users often want to make custom designs or iterate on them rather than have an AI engine generate something from whole cloth.
—Lauren Goode, WIRED, 10 Jan. 2024
In attempting to build a new settlement out of whole cloth, these tech moguls are following a tradition started nearly a century ago by other American industrialists, who built company towns around their mills, and utopians who built remote communities in line with their social beliefs.
—Irina Ivanova, Fortune, 30 Aug. 2023
This year, especially, electoral work has meant battling moral panics stoked by the right on social media, sometimes imported virtually whole cloth from the right wing in the United States.
—Kate Aronoff, The New Republic, 17 Oct. 2022
The rough congruence validates that the Roman Catholic Church in Quebec didn’t make records out of whole cloth, but there were likely fudges, guesses, and deceptions on the margins.
—Razib Khan, Discover Magazine, 24 Jan. 2011
This industry was created out of whole cloth and it’s changed the world.
—Antonio Ferme, Variety, 9 Mar. 2022
Why would Erika make this up out of whole cloth?
—Brian Moylan, Vulture, 15 Sep. 2021
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'whole cloth.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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Cite this Entry
“Whole cloth.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/whole%20cloth. Accessed 20 Apr. 2024.
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