Meaning of whole cloth | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A newly made textile which has not yet been cut.
   countable, uncountable
2. The fictitious material from which complete fabrications, lies with no basis in truth, are made.
   figuratively, uncountable
3. Something made completely new, with no history, and not based on anything else.
   figuratively, uncountable

Equivalents

Examples

“Mr. Doe's account of the accident was made from whole cloth.”

“All those tales that came clicking over the wireless of the capture of huge stores of grain and oil were fables out of whole cloth.”

“The plans for the widget were drawn from whole cloth.”

“And, mind you, emotions are among the toughest things in the world to manufacture out of whole cloth; it is easier to manufacture seven facts than one emotion.”

“Man makes his own history, but he does not make it out of the whole cloth; he does not make it out of conditions chosen by himself, but out of such as he finds close at hand.”

“The decisions made by judges, however, and the interpretations that they advance or accept must be plausibly inferable from something in the Charter. It is not for the courts to manufacture a constitutional right out of whole cloth.”

“Susan Wojcicki became YouTube's leader during the obvious phase. She didn't need to invent YouTube's business plan from whole cloth.”

CEFR level