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 Star himself debunked the rumor, apparently fabricated from whole cloth by a TikToker, on his channel. — Halle Kiefer, Vulture, "Jeffree Star Hospitalized and In ‘Excruciating Pain’ Following ‘Severe Car Accident’ In Wyoming," 16 Apr. 2021 While the screamiest headlines of the past few years have warned of robots replacing workers whole cloth, the more common scenarios emerging involve a hybrid human-robot model. — Caitlin Harrington, Wired, "As Amazon Workers Organize, They Stress: ‘We Are Not Robots’," 9 Apr. 2021 Regardless of the sport, the debuts of expansion teams, those created out of whole cloth, are notoriously poor performances. — Larry Olmsted, Forbes, "How Sports Heals Communities: An Excerpt From ‘Fans’," 26 Feb. 2021 Racial incidents proliferated that seemed to have been invented out of whole cloth. — WSJ, "What Altered the Public’s Taste for Lies?," 26 Feb. 2021 But many other rumors about antifa have been spun from whole cloth, sometimes by people later identified as right-wing extremists. — Leslie Gornstein, CBS News, "What is antifa? Is it a group or an idea, and what do supporters want?," 16 Oct. 2020 Perry Mason, the first season of which is clearly modeled after a superhero origin story, invents an elaborate backstory out of whole cloth for the character, and grounds it, naturally, in trauma. — Sophie Gilbert, The Atlantic, "The Conundrum of a New Perry Mason," 25 June 2020 As bars and restaurants in Michigan begin reopening dining rooms, many operators are going beyond the pivot to carryout and reinventing themselves out of whole cloth to adapt to diners' reset whims. — Mark Kurlyandchik, Detroit Free Press, "Super high-end Birmingham restaurant Pernoi rebrands as casual Italian joint," 12 June 2020 Europeans aren't inventing these measures out of whole cloth. — Bernhard Warner, Fortune, "Out of work, but not unemployed: how much Europe is paying its idled workers," 23 Apr. 2020

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

26 Apr 2021

Cite this Entry

“Whole cloth.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/whole%20cloth. Accessed 15 May. 2021.

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