the.com/dyed in the wool
Colored before it was even yarn — so the identity goes all the way down.
means Describes a trait, belief, or allegiance so thoroughly ingrained that it's permanent and defines the person entirely — a dyed-in-the-wool conservative isn't just leaning that way, it's woven into who they are.
from From textile dyeing: wool colored as raw fiber, before spinning and weaving, takes the dye far more evenly and permanently than cloth dyed after the fact. The phrase moved into English in the 1800s as a figure for anything fixed at the root rather than applied on the surface — the color isn't a coat of paint, it's in every fiber.
- origin
- wool dyed before spinning holds color permanently
- meaning shift
- now means unchangeable belief or allegiance
- first recorded
- used in english since the 1500s
- common pairing
- often precedes republican, fan, or cynic