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Glite Dictionary
to paint with a broad brush

to paint with a broad brush

2 7.2
Describe people or things in very general ways that ignore important details
  • idiom
  • Informal
translation icon : generalizar
  • That is why I have a hard time understanding why you would refer to the commentators as "this audience," assume how the commentators will react, and paint us all with a very broad brush as though we are a monolithic group of humorless robots.
  • painting with a very broad brush

Let's just say if we're painting with A broad brush on the right and then you have the hippies and so on and the lefties who are pro drugs.

Examples

  • The article also paints with an overly broad brush in criticizing the BrightSource project.

    Blog text (16)

  • Does it sound like I'm painting with a broad brush?

    Blog text (29)

  • People paint with a broad brush.

    Blog text (28)

  • Let's be careful when painting "meat" with such a broad brush.

    Blog text (10)

  • Note that this is a blog, so I am painting with a bit of a broad brush.

    Blog text (5)

  • You can't just paint them all with a broad brush.

    Blog text (12)

  • You can't paint these people with a broad brush, though that is what the White House is trying to do.

    Blog text (13)

  • So I wonder if I could ask you if perhaps you're painting with a very broad brush when you talk about media covering hydraulic fracturing.

    Blog text (5)

  • In her review, she tended to paint with a broad brush, failing to acknowledge the different styles of each artist.

  • He warned that painting the entire group with a broad brush ignores the individual contributions of its members.

Synonyms

to overgeneralize
vsto paint with a broad brush
1 8.0

To make a general rule from a few cases and ignore important differences

describes or judges broadly and often misses important differences
to tar with the same brush
vsto paint with a broad brush
  • Informal
1 8.7

Unfairly judge a whole group because of one person's actions

describes or judges broadly rather than judging from one example

Antonyms

to detail
105 3.1

To describe something by giving many small facts

nuance
74 5.1

A small difference in meaning or feeling that is hard to notice

How General

to stereotype
11 4.8
to generalize
  • US
41 4.2
to paint with a broad brush
  • Informal
2 7.2
to summarize
  • US
90 3.0

Surface Forms

paint with a broad brush infinitive
painted with a broad brush past
painted with a broad brush past participle
painting with a broad brush present participle
paints with a broad brush third person singular

Morphology

paint + with + a + broad + brush

The components 'paint' + 'broad' + 'brush' create a clear metaphor of making large, non-detailed strokes, which maps well onto the idea of describing or judging something in very general terms; a learner who knows the words can often infer the sense of 'generalizing' from the imagery. However, the shift from a literal physical action (painting) to an evaluative act (judging/describing) is metaphorical and not fully compositional, so it may not be immediately predictable to all B1 learners without prior exposure.

Etymology

Paint with a broad brush comes from the image of someone using a big brush to paint quickly, covering a large area but missing small details. That's why it means 'to describe or judge people or things in a very general way'.