whole kit and caboodle, the

Slang definitions & phrases for whole kit and caboodle, the

whole kit and caboodle, the

noun phrase

Everything (1880s+)


Idioms and Phrases with whole kit and caboodle, the

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.”