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

See Examples For:

warts and all

"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

A "warts and all" assessment of the impact of the North Coast 500 road trip has been ordered amid concerns about overtourism.

From BBC ● Dec. 9, 2025

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

Cromwell's wife and daughters would probably prefer to have him painted wartless, but posterity wants him warts and all.

From The Land of Contrasts A Briton's View of His American Kin by James F. (James Fullarton) Muirhead

Related Words

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