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: cut, from, 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

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, 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: whole

a man of the cloth (formal)

a priest. Are you a man of the cloth?

See also: man

take the cloth (formal)

to become a priest. He took the cloth in 1945.

See also: take

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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, from, 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: whole