a thing of shreds and patches
a thing of shreds and patches
Something made up of small scraps of various things that have been crudely or inadequately assembled together. His political agenda is a thing of shreds and patches—a bizarre assembly of fancy, contradictory elements that is really just a vehicle for his inflammatory rhetoric. In trying to create a novel that encompasses all of human existence, he has instead created a confusing thing of shreds and patches that never really does anything interesting or meaningful.
See also: and, of, patch, shred, thing
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
a thing of shreds and patches
something made up of scraps of fabric patched together. literaryIn the third act of Hamlet, the prince describes his uncle Claudius, who has usurped the throne, as ‘a king of shreds and patches’; this description was parodied by W. S. Gilbert in The Mikado as ‘a thing of shreds and patches’.
See also: and, of, patch, shred, thing
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary
- shred
- grub for
- grub for (something)
- rag doll
- rend (something) into (something)
- rend (something) to (something)
- rend into
- in shreds
- politics makes strange bedfellows
- cut to (someone or something)