whole cloth

noun

Definition of whole cloth

: 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

But updating a problematic franchise is a lot harder than creating a new, empowering figure from whole cloth. — Eliana Dockterman, Time, "Lashana Lynch Is Reportedly the Next 007. Here's How the New James Bond Movie Can Do Right by Her," 15 July 2019 To the Editors: In his review of Sean Wilentz’s No Property in Man, Nicholas Guyatt claims on three separate occasions that Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass concocted an antislavery Constitution out of whole cloth in the 1850s. — Nicholas Guyatt, The New York Review of Books, "‘No Property in Man’: An Exchange," 6 June 2019 The elven halls of Rivendell, the muddy Hobbit-holes of Bag End, and the twisted hellscapes of Mordor weren't created whole cloth—they were experienced. — Darren Orf, Popular Mechanics, "'Tolkien': A Life Where Fantasy Met Reality," 3 May 2019 Political opponents and hired guns sling mud and cast aspersions, sometimes concocting things from whole cloth. — Chad Pergram, Fox News, "Who wrote the op-ed? Will the government shut down? Denials pile up in Washington," 10 Sep. 2018 The Russians are not manufacturing an issue out of whole cloth — nationalism clearly has an authentic popular basis — but instead use their influence to magnify it. — Jonathan Chait, Daily Intelligencer, "Britain Has a Russia Collusion Scandal Now. It Looks Exactly Like Trump’s.," 22 June 2018 Trump did not invent this language from whole cloth. — Sarah Jones, The New Republic, "Why Tyrants Dehumanize the Powerless," 20 June 2018 The willingness to create a character from whole cloth to talk you up to the tabloids is the sort of thing that wouldn't occur to most people. — Chris Cillizza, CNN, "This 1990 Donald Trump quote in Playboy magazine explains today perfectly," 31 May 2018 In fact, Balogun only looks like a threat at all when viewed through the lens that the FBI fabricated whole cloth. — Luke Darby, GQ, "The FBI Held a Black Activist for 5 Months for Legally Owning a Gun and Attending a Protest," 12 May 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'whole cloth.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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Last Updated

19 Jul 2019

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The first known use of whole cloth was in 1823

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