whole kit and caboodle, the

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Idioms and Phrases

Everything, every part, as in He packed up all his gear, the whole kit and caboodle, and walked out . This expression is a redundancy, for kit has meant “a collection or group” since the mid-1700s (though this meaning survives only in the full idiom today), and caboodle has been used with the same meaning since the 1840s. In fact caboodle is thought to be a corruption of the phrase kit and boodle , another redundant phrase, since boodle also meant “a collection.”

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

The map is labeled — yes, I actually labeled it — “War Ends Oct. 6, 1968,” and by then, in case you’re wondering, the Chinese have it all, the whole kit and caboodle, the complete planet, from Australia to the Soviet Union, where in my handwriting it says, “Russia surrenders, Sept. 1968, including Moscow, Stalingrad & other areas.”

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

whole ball of wax, the whole nine yards, the

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