all-wool-and-a-yard-wide

Updated: May 3, 2025

You see I've been kind of obliged to stay for reasons connected with the firm, but you ladies can take my word for it that when you get through this sort of ridiculous veneer I've picked up you'll find a regular all-wool-and-a-yard-wide city-of-Chicago American, and I'm bound to ask you not to forget it. This English way of talking is a thing that grows on a fellow unconsciously, don't you know.

Sara Jeannette Duncan - A Voyage of Consolation: (being in the nature of a sequel to the experiences of 'An: American girl in London')

Of course I've had giants in my circuses and museums, from the beginning. The public wanted 'em and we had to have 'em. Some of 'em were fakes men on stilts with long pants to cover up their legs, and others were the real, genuine, all-wool-and-a-yard-wide article. But none of them were very big. A shade under eight feet was the limit with me."

Victor [pseud.] Appleton - Tom Swift in Captivity, or a Daring Escape By Airship