"whole ball of wax" meaning in All languages combined

See whole ball of wax on Wiktionary

Noun [English]

Audio: En-au-whole ball of wax.ogg
Head templates: {{en-noun|?}} whole ball of wax
  1. (idiomatic, slang) The entire or overall plan, concept or action. Tags: idiomatic, slang
    Sense id: en-whole_ball_of_wax-en-noun-zH807Lti
  2. (idiomatic, slang) Everything of a similar or related nature; everything necessary for a particular purpose. Tags: idiomatic, slang
    Sense id: en-whole_ball_of_wax-en-noun-5K1Xxa-Z Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English positive polarity items, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 24 76 Disambiguation of English positive polarity items: 19 81 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 13 87 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 11 89 Synonyms: all the marbles, bag and baggage, everytang [US, colloquial, informal], everything but the galley stove, everything but the kitchen sink, everything under the sun, full monty [Britain], hook, line and sinker, kit and caboodle, lock, stock and barrel, the whole bang shoot, the whole nine yards, the works, whole ball of wax, whole hog, whole enchilada, whole kit and caboodle, whole package, whole shebang, whole shitting match, whole shooting match, whole smash
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
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          "text": "The whole ball of wax will be viewed in 5 minutes.",
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          "text": "In my opinion the whole ball of wax depends on what she'll say.",
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          "ref": "1976 September, Saul Bellow, Humboldt’s Gift, New York, N.Y.: Avon Books, →ISBN, page 380:",
          "text": "Of course I have to take a little advantage. After all, I'm the guy who puts the thing together—the whole ball of wax.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The entire or overall plan, concept or action."
      ],
      "id": "en-whole_ball_of_wax-en-noun-zH807Lti",
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        [
          "entire",
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      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, slang) The entire or overall plan, concept or action."
      ],
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        "idiomatic",
        "slang"
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          "_dis": "19 81",
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          "_dis": "13 87",
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          "text": "We've got pots, pans, the food and cooking utensils—the whole ball of wax.",
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        "Everything of a similar or related nature; everything necessary for a particular purpose."
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        "(idiomatic, slang) Everything of a similar or related nature; everything necessary for a particular purpose."
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        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:everything",
          "word": "all the marbles"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:everything",
          "word": "bag and baggage"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:everything",
          "tags": [
            "US",
            "colloquial",
            "informal"
          ],
          "word": "everytang"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:everything",
          "word": "everything but the galley stove"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:everything",
          "word": "everything but the kitchen sink"
        },
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          "source": "Thesaurus:everything",
          "word": "everything under the sun"
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          "source": "Thesaurus:everything",
          "tags": [
            "Britain"
          ],
          "word": "full monty"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:everything",
          "word": "hook"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:everything",
          "word": "line and sinker"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:everything",
          "word": "kit and caboodle"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:everything",
          "word": "lock"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:everything",
          "word": "stock and barrel"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:everything",
          "word": "the whole bang shoot"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:everything",
          "word": "the whole nine yards"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:everything",
          "word": "the works"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:everything",
          "word": "whole ball of wax"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:everything",
          "word": "whole hog"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:everything",
          "word": "whole enchilada"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:everything",
          "word": "whole kit and caboodle"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:everything",
          "word": "whole package"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:everything",
          "word": "whole shebang"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:everything",
          "word": "whole shitting match"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:everything",
          "word": "whole shooting match"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:everything",
          "word": "whole smash"
        }
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      "tags": [
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  "word": "whole ball of wax"
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
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          "type": "quote"
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        "The entire or overall plan, concept or action."
      ],
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          "overall",
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        ]
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        "(idiomatic, slang) The entire or overall plan, concept or action."
      ],
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        "(idiomatic, slang) Everything of a similar or related nature; everything necessary for a particular purpose."
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        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:everything",
          "word": "all the marbles"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:everything",
          "word": "bag and baggage"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:everything",
          "tags": [
            "US",
            "colloquial",
            "informal"
          ],
          "word": "everytang"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:everything",
          "word": "everything but the galley stove"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:everything",
          "word": "everything but the kitchen sink"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:everything",
          "word": "everything under the sun"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:everything",
          "tags": [
            "Britain"
          ],
          "word": "full monty"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:everything",
          "word": "hook"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:everything",
          "word": "line and sinker"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:everything",
          "word": "kit and caboodle"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:everything",
          "word": "lock"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:everything",
          "word": "stock and barrel"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:everything",
          "word": "the whole bang shoot"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:everything",
          "word": "the whole nine yards"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:everything",
          "word": "the works"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:everything",
          "word": "whole ball of wax"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:everything",
          "word": "whole hog"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:everything",
          "word": "whole enchilada"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:everything",
          "word": "whole kit and caboodle"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:everything",
          "word": "whole package"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:everything",
          "word": "whole shebang"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:everything",
          "word": "whole shitting match"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:everything",
          "word": "whole shooting match"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:everything",
          "word": "whole smash"
        }
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  "word": "whole ball of wax"
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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-05-29 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-05-20 using wiktextract (e937b02 and f1c2b61). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.