warts and all

Idioms  

1. Including all blemishes, faults, and shortcomings, as in Rather unwisely, they decided to buy the house, warts and all. This expression supposedly alludes to Oliver Cromwell's instruction to portrait painter Sir Peter Lely to “remark all these roughnesses, pimples, warts, and everything as you see me, otherwise I will never pay a farthing for it.” [First half of 1600s]

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Example Sentences

"If you know them as well, I think that just makes it harder because warts and all, you have to try and find a fully-rounded character."

From BBC • Mar. 5, 2026

And though the book has its shortcomings, he rightly sees the movie as a kind of passkey into the history of the first half-century of Hollywood itself, warts and all.

From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 7, 2025

Having spent nearly 50 years telling America’s stories, warts and all, Ken Burns knows better than to traffic in the reassurance business.

From Salon • Jul. 17, 2025

It is my job to try to bring you as clear a sense as I can of what is really going on at the heart of government, warts and all.

From BBC • Sep. 18, 2024

In connection with this question of portraying a man "warts and all," I might cite the beautiful bust of Liszt by Boehm.

From Forty Years of 'Spy' by Ward, Leslie

Related Words

• blatantly
• brazenly
• candidly
• flagrantly
• forthrightly
• fully
• honestly
• plainly
• publicly
• readily
• simply
• unabashedly
• unashamedly
• willingly