cloth

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: 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.

See also: accord, coat, cut

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: make, 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.

See also: man

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a man of the cloth  (formal)

a priest Are you a man of the cloth?

See also: man

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: cut, same

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.

See also: ear

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.

See also: accord, coat, cut

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: make, out, up, whole

take the cloth  (formal)

to become a priest He took the cloth in 1945.

See cut coat according to cloth

See also: take

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(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: out, whole

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: cut, same