Meaning of leather and prunella | Babel Free

Definitions

That which is merely superficial and does not indicate the true nature or value of a person (or thing).

archaic, uncountable

Examples

“In the modern languages she was perfectly skilled; and if her drawings wanted the enliving touches of the master to give them effect; as an atonement, they displayed a perfect knowledge of the rules of perspective and the study of the bust. ¶ All this was however mere leather and prunella to the ladies of Glenfern […]”

““[…] Do you think he disliked her seeing him at our house? Surely your position is more than equal to his—whatever may be his relation to the Casaubons.” ¶ “No, no; it must be something else if he were really vexed. Ladislaw is a sort of gypsy; he thinks nothing of leather and prunella.””

“1880, Benjamin Disraeli, letter to Lord Salisbury, cited in Richard Faber, Beaconsfield and Bolingbroke, London: Faber and Faber, 1961, p. 19, […] I have been profoundly convinced that the greatness and character of this country depended on our landed tenure. All the rest I look upon, and have ever looked upon, as leather and prunella.”

“[…] it seems to have been tacitly assumed by the critics that Shakespeare himself was more or less indifferent to the costume of his actors, and that, could he see Mr. Irving’s production of his Much Ado about Nothing, or Mr. Wilson Barrett’s setting of his Hamlet, he would probably say that the play, and the play only, is the thing, and that everything else is leather and prunella.”

“that leather-and-prunella man of fashion Mr. Adam FitzAdam”

CEFR level