warts and all

8 6.9

To describe someone or a thing without hiding their faults

idiom

Informal

: con sus defectos

You know everything about me, warts and all.
loved him, warts and all
warts and all portrait
performance, warts and all

And always that we are a people, a country, a state with leaders, warts and all.

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Examples

Please continue to feel free to express yourself, warts and all.

Blog text (27)
It's good to remember to just make it beautiful, warts and all.

Blog text (23)
I might as well give them all the pictures "warts and all" as there might be something

Blog text (25)
Try to give it to us warts and all.

Academic text (2000)
Once students consider all of these elements, they read the piece from beginning to end, "warts and all."

Academic text (1998)
I'm going to marry America, warts and all.

Fiction book (1999)
MPs need to see that advice, warts and all, so they can make their informed decision.
Loving the Bible for "what it is" means loving it warts and all.

Blog text (29)
They'll accept you, warts and all, if that's who you really are.
I want the truth, warts and all.

Antonyms

flawless

81 3.7

Perfect without any mistakes or faults

idealized

17 6.7

Made to seem perfect or much better than it really is

Surface Forms

warts and all main

Morphology

wart + and + all

The phrase uses a clear metaphor: 'wart' as an unattractive blemish combined with 'and all' (including everything) yields the sense 'include the flaws'. A B1 learner who knows the constituent meanings can often infer this, but because it is a conventionalized metaphorical idiom rather than a strictly compositional phrase, the mapping may not be fully predictable without prior exposure.

Etymology

Warts and all comes from an old story about a leader who told his painter to paint him with his warts showing, not hiding anything. That's why the phrase means 'including all flaws'.