cloth

back-cloth star

An actor or performer who takes the focus of the audience away from the other actors on stage by positioning him- or herself in such a way that the other actors' backs are to the audience. Everyone said after the show that his performance was riveting, but to be honest, I think he's just a back-cloth star. He made it so he was the only one we could ever see!

cut out of whole cloth

Completely fictional or utterly false; totally made up. A reference to tailors who would falsely advertise garments being "cut out of whole cloth," when in reality, they were pieced together from different cuts. To be honest, I don't believe a word he says—it sounds cut out of whole cloth to me.

made out of whole cloth

cut from whole cloth

made from whole cloth

be touching cloth

semi-vulgar slang To have a very urgent or desperate need to defecate. (Refers jokingly to one's feces protruding into one's underpants.) Boy, it's a good thing we got home when we did—I was touching cloth on the way here!

whole cloth

Make-believe; invention. Usually appears in the phrase "out of whole cloth." I broke curfew staying out too late with my boyfriend, but luckily I was able to make an excuse out of whole cloth about being at the library. When my sister refused to go to sleep without a bedtime story, I pulled a tale about princesses together out of whole cloth.

man of the cloth

A priest or clergyman. Ever since he was young, John knew he wanted to become a man of the cloth.

cut from the same cloth

Very similar in characteristics or behaviors. I hate the snow, but my kids just love it—they are definitely cut from the same cloth. Julia and her mother are cut from the same cloth, as they are both so kind and sweet.

See also: cloth, cut, same

cut from the same cloth

and made from the same mold

Fig. sharing a lot of similarities; seeming to have been created, reared, or fashioned in the same way. She and her brother are cut from the same cloth. They both tell lies all the time. Father and son are made from the same mold and even sound alike on the telephone.

See also: cloth, cut, same

cut one's coat according to one's cloth

and cut one's coat to suit one's cloth

Prov. to plan one's aims and activities in line with one's resources and circumstances. We would like a bigger house, but we must cut our coat according to our cloth. They can't afford a vacation abroad—they have to cut their coat according to their cloth.

make something up out of whole cloth

Fig. to fabricate a story or a lie. That's a lie. You just made that up out of whole cloth. That's a lie. You just made up that story out of whole cloth.

See also: cloth, make, of, out, up, whole

man of the cloth

Fig. a clergyman. Father Brown is a man of the cloth and is welcome at our table for dinner every Sunday.

cut from the same cloth

to be very similar These new songs are clearly cut from the same cloth as the band's earlier tunes.

See also: cloth, cut, same

(made up) out of whole cloth

to be completely invented The whole article was a fairy tale, made up out of whole cloth.

See also: cloth, of, out, whole

cloth ears

(British old-fashioned, humorous)

something you call someone who has not heard something you said Hey, cloth ears, I asked if you wanted a drink.

take the cloth

(formal)

to become a priest He took the cloth in 1945.

See cut coat according to cloth

be cut from the same cloth

to be very similar Despite differences in age and in experience, these two great writers are cut from the same cloth.

See also: cloth, cut, same

cut your coat according to your cloth

also cut your cloth according to your means

to only buy what you have enough money to pay for Of course we'd love a huge expensive house, but you have to cut your coat according to your cloth.

a man of the cloth

(formal)

a priest Are you a man of the cloth?

sackcloth and ashes

(slightly formal)

if you wear sackcloth and ashes, you show by your behaviour that you are very sorry for something you did wrong

Usage notes: In the past, clothes made of sackcloth (= a rough cloth) were worn by the Jews in religious activities to show that they were sad or sorry for the things they had done wrong.

I've already apologized. How long must I wear sackcloth and ashes before you'll forgive me?

make something up out of whole cloth

(American) also invent something out of whole cloth (American)

if a story or excuse is made up out of whole cloth, it is not true Yet the explanation was too strange for Joan to have made up out of whole cloth.

See also: cloth, make, of, out, up, whole

out of whole cloth

From pure fabrication or fiction. This expression is often put as cut (or made) out of whole cloth, as in That story was cut out of whole cloth. In the 15th century this expression referred to something fabricated from cloth that ran the full length of the loom. However, by the 1800s it was common practice for tailors to deceive their customers and, instead of using whole cloth, actually make garments from pieced goods. Their advertising slogan, "cut out of whole cloth," thus came to mean "made up, false."

See also: cloth, of, out, whole

sackcloth and ashes

Mourning or penitence, as in What I did to Julie's child was terrible, and I've been in sackcloth and ashes ever since . This term refers to the ancient Hebrew custom of indicating humility before God by wearing a coarse cloth, normally used to make sacks, and dusting oneself with ashes. In English it appeared in William Tyndale's 1526 biblical translations (Matthew 11:21), "They [the cities Tyre and Sidon] had repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes."

in cloth

With a clothbound binding; as a clothbound book.

cut from the same cloth

Similar or the same.

See also: cloth, cut, same

out of whole cloth

1. By means of the imagination or as a fabrication: "Some of her stories she created out of whole cloth; for others she began with an incident Idella had described and then reimagined it into a full story" (Kate Walbert).

2. Out of nothing; from the very start: "The idea of creating out of whole cloth an intelligence network in a country like that is daunting" (Jack Reed).

See also: cloth, of, out, whole

out of whole cloth

Fictitious. The most convincing explanation for this phrase deals with Middle Ages tailors who wove fabric on large looms, then cut the pieces into suits and dresses. Garments made from a single bolt of cloth were far preferable to ones made from leftover pieces. Dishonest tailors tried to convince customers that their clothes were made of whole cloth. When their lie was found out enough times, “whole cloth” came to stand for a fabrication, the meaning that survives to this day.

See also: cloth, of, out, whole

Common Names:

Name	Pronounced	Usage
Wawrzyniec	vahf-ZHIN-yets	Polish
Florus	-	Ancient Roman
Estienne	-	Medieval French
Stig	-	Swedish, Norwegian, Danish
Apolena	-	Czech, Slovak
Jared	JER-əd (English), JAR-əd (English)	English, Biblical