Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Pure fabrication or fiction.
- idiom (out of whole cloth) By means of the imagination or as a fabrication.
- idiom (out of whole cloth) Out of nothing; from the very start.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A newly made
textile which has not yet been cut. - noun figuratively The fictitious material from which complete
fabrications , lies with no basis in truth, are made. - noun Something made completely new, with no history, and not based on anything else.
- adverb idiomatic in full
extent ,wholesale ,entirely , without changes oradditions
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
[From the fabrication of garments out of newly manufactured, full-sized pieces of cloth.]
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
From whole + cloth.
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Examples
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hernesheir commented on the word whole cloth
Made out of whole cloth, as in tabula rasa, sui generis and the like.
January 19, 2010