English · Idiom Historical

dyed in the wool

Preserved but no longer current.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

Cloth which is wool-dyed (not piece-dyed) is true throughout and will wash. Hence the phrase is used to describe anything or person absolutely genuine.

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

vật hoặc người hoàn toàn chân chính

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)

Sources & notes

Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.

Topics: Historical slang (1800s)

Common questions

What does “dyed in the wool” mean?

Cloth which is wool-dyed (not piece-dyed) is true throughout and will wash. Hence the phrase is used to describe anything or person absolutely genuine.

Is “dyed in the wool” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

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