the whole kit and caboodle

(redirected from the whole kit 'n' caboodle)

the whole kit and caboodle

All the parts of a group of things. I had a collection I'd been putting together for nearly 25 years, and burglars stole the whole kit and caboodle. John has some awesome camping gear, and he let us borrow the whole kit and caboodle for the weekend.

whole kit and caboodle

Inf. a group of pieces of equipment or belongings. (The word caboodle is used only in this expression.) When I bought Bob's motorhome, I got furniture, refrigerator, and linen—the whole kit and caboodle. The salesman managed to sell John the whole kit and caboodle.

whole kit and caboodle, the

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."

the whole caboodle

BRITISH, AMERICAN or

the whole kit and caboodle

BRITISH

If you talk about the whole caboodle or the whole kit and caboodle, you mean the whole of something. You can borrow the tent and equipment — the whole caboodle — if you like. They have financed the whole kit and caboodle. Note: The usual American expression is the whole ball of wax or the whole enchilada. Note: `Caboodle' may come from the Dutch word `boedal', meaning `property'.

the whole caboodle (or the whole kit and caboodle)

the whole lot. informal

Caboodle may come from the Dutch word boedel meaning ‘possessions’.

the ˌwhole caˈboodle

the ˌwhole kit and caˈboodle

everything: I had new clothes, a new hairstyle — the whole caboodle.This idiom originally came from the Dutch word boedel, meaning ‘possessions’.

the (whole) kit and caboodle

Informal

The entire collection or lot.