whole cloth

noun

: 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 Unlike Trump, a man like Kelly doesn’t fabricate nonsensical tales from whole cloth. —

Voice Of The People, New York Daily News, 7 June 2024 Some of the modern world’s foundations may lie in the European Renaissance and the Reformation, but that world did not simply emerge out of whole cloth from Europe. —

Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, Foreign Affairs, 19 Apr. 2022 Soccer in general and the Premier League in particular have a gift for spinning controversy from whole cloth, but this did not seem an especially compelling candidate for the hot-take treatment. —

Rory Smith, New York Times, 1 Mar. 2024 The Republican politicians who Trump owns, and whose genitals are kept in glass jars at Mar-a-Lago for the guests to see, have even been creating, out of whole cloth, just to please the boss, the notion that Swift is some kind of political secret double-agent acting on behalf of Joe Biden. —

Joe Soucheray, Twin Cities, 3 Feb. 2024 See all Example Sentences for whole cloth

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'whole cloth.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.