"the whole nine yards" meaning in English

See the whole nine yards in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Adverb

Etymology: Dave Wilton summarises the findings of Bonnie Taylor-Blake and others: :The phrase doesn’t have one particular origin, nor does it represent one particular metaphor. Instead, it seems to have evolved from a sense of yard meaning a vague quantity of something. Later, the words full or whole were attached to it, and even later it was quantified by the numbers six and nine, with the whole nine yards eventually winning out and becoming the canonical form. Use of the full phrase was for a long time restricted to the American Midwest, in particular to the region around the Kentucky-Indiana border, before breaking out into general American parlance in the middle of the twentieth century. … :So regardless of what someone else has told you, the whole nine yards does not refer to the length of a belt of WWII machine-gun ammunition, the amount of material needed to make a Scottish kilt or a sari, the number of spars on a sailing ship, the amount of concrete a cement mixer holds, or anything else. Head templates: {{head|en|adverb|head=the whole nine yards}} the whole nine yards
  1. All the way; with everything done completely or thoroughly. Categories (topical): Nine
    Sense id: en-the_whole_nine_yards-en-adv-GA~yXFMa Disambiguation of Nine: 62 38 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English positive polarity items, Entries with translation boxes, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Terms with Dutch translations, Terms with Finnish translations, Terms with German translations, Terms with Hungarian translations, Terms with Spanish translations Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 68 32 Disambiguation of English positive polarity items: 67 33 Disambiguation of Entries with translation boxes: 64 36 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 67 33 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 68 32 Disambiguation of Terms with Dutch translations: 60 40 Disambiguation of Terms with Finnish translations: 61 39 Disambiguation of Terms with German translations: 61 39 Disambiguation of Terms with Hungarian translations: 61 39 Disambiguation of Terms with Spanish translations: 64 36

Noun

Etymology: Dave Wilton summarises the findings of Bonnie Taylor-Blake and others: :The phrase doesn’t have one particular origin, nor does it represent one particular metaphor. Instead, it seems to have evolved from a sense of yard meaning a vague quantity of something. Later, the words full or whole were attached to it, and even later it was quantified by the numbers six and nine, with the whole nine yards eventually winning out and becoming the canonical form. Use of the full phrase was for a long time restricted to the American Midwest, in particular to the region around the Kentucky-Indiana border, before breaking out into general American parlance in the middle of the twentieth century. … :So regardless of what someone else has told you, the whole nine yards does not refer to the length of a belt of WWII machine-gun ammunition, the amount of material needed to make a Scottish kilt or a sari, the number of spars on a sailing ship, the amount of concrete a cement mixer holds, or anything else. Head templates: {{head|en|noun|head=the whole nine yards}} the whole nine yards
  1. (And) everything; often used, like etc., to finish out a list. Synonyms: everything Translations ((And) everything): hottentottententententoonstelling [feminine] (Dutch), koko hoito (Finnish), koko potti (Finnish), helahoito (Finnish), das volle Programm (German), minden (Hungarian), y toda la pesca (Spanish)
    Sense id: en-the_whole_nine_yards-en-noun-fNG7z5ny
     
{
  "etymology_text": "Dave Wilton summarises the findings of Bonnie Taylor-Blake and others:\n:The phrase doesn’t have one particular origin, nor does it represent one particular metaphor. Instead, it seems to have evolved from a sense of yard meaning a vague quantity of something. Later, the words full or whole were attached to it, and even later it was quantified by the numbers six and nine, with the whole nine yards eventually winning out and becoming the canonical form. Use of the full phrase was for a long time restricted to the American Midwest, in particular to the region around the Kentucky-Indiana border, before breaking out into general American parlance in the middle of the twentieth century. …\n:So regardless of what someone else has told you, the whole nine yards does not refer to the length of a belt of WWII machine-gun ammunition, the amount of material needed to make a Scottish kilt or a sari, the number of spars on a sailing ship, the amount of concrete a cement mixer holds, or anything else.",
  "head_templates": [
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adv",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "68 32",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
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          "_dis": "67 33",
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          "_dis": "61 39",
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          "_dis": "61 39",
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          "_dis": "61 39",
          "kind": "other",
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          "_dis": "64 36",
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        {
          "_dis": "62 38",
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Nine",
          "orig": "en:Nine",
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            "Numbers",
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            "Terms by semantic function",
            "Fundamental"
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          "source": "w+disamb"
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      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2007, Thomas Mchenry, Along the Rails: A Juror's Journey, page 85:",
          "text": "Would they want me to vote my conscience or would they want us to unanimously go the whole nine yards, declare him sane and possibly have the trial end up in a death sentence?",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2007, R. D. Reynolds, The Wrestlecrap Book of Lists!, page 18:",
          "text": "WWE went the whole nine yards, from making Tshirts with the slogan to having announcers mention his new handle approximately every four seconds anytime he was on-screen.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2012, Susan Stephens, Working with the Enemy, page 164:",
          "text": "Colleen had gone the whole nine yards, dressing up as a fortune teller, complete with huge gold earrings and a headscarf, which she'd plucked from her normal accessory box, she told Bronte.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "All the way; with everything done completely or thoroughly."
      ],
      "id": "en-the_whole_nine_yards-en-adv-GA~yXFMa",
      "links": [
        [
          "All the way",
          "all the way"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "the whole nine yards"
  ],
  "word": "the whole nine yards"
}

{
  "etymology_text": "Dave Wilton summarises the findings of Bonnie Taylor-Blake and others:\n:The phrase doesn’t have one particular origin, nor does it represent one particular metaphor. Instead, it seems to have evolved from a sense of yard meaning a vague quantity of something. Later, the words full or whole were attached to it, and even later it was quantified by the numbers six and nine, with the whole nine yards eventually winning out and becoming the canonical form. Use of the full phrase was for a long time restricted to the American Midwest, in particular to the region around the Kentucky-Indiana border, before breaking out into general American parlance in the middle of the twentieth century. …\n:So regardless of what someone else has told you, the whole nine yards does not refer to the length of a belt of WWII machine-gun ammunition, the amount of material needed to make a Scottish kilt or a sari, the number of spars on a sailing ship, the amount of concrete a cement mixer holds, or anything else.",
  "head_templates": [
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1908 June 4, The Mitchell Commercial, Lawrence County, Indiana, retrieved 2018-08-14, page 3, col.5:",
          "text": "While there Roscoe went fishing and has a big story to tell, but we refuse to stand while he unloads. He will catch some unsuspecting individual some of these days and give him the whole nine yards.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2002, Mary Losure, Our Way Or the Highway: Inside the Minnehaha Free State, page 161:",
          "text": "\"I had a good job, a nice little house, the whole nine yards,\" she said.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2009, Jason Barbacovi, Me and Chairman Mao, page 101:",
          "text": "No, to her credit she kept right on going the whole time, telling me how she was from Mongolia, how she was an art student, how she was having an exhibition — the whole nine yards.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2009, Reynaldo Laureano, Politics Vs. Prejudice in the Highway Patrol, page 46:",
          "text": "Mario asked me to explain to him the whole nine yards so I decided to start off on a good note.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "everything; often used, like etc., to finish out a list."
      ],
      "id": "en-the_whole_nine_yards-en-noun-fNG7z5ny",
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        [
          "everything",
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          "etc.",
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      "qualifier": "And",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(And) everything; often used, like etc., to finish out a list."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "everything"
        }
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "nl",
          "lang": "Dutch",
          "sense": "(And) everything",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "hottentottententententoonstelling"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "(And) everything",
          "word": "koko hoito"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "(And) everything",
          "word": "koko potti"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "(And) everything",
          "word": "helahoito"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "(And) everything",
          "word": "das volle Programm"
        },
        {
          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "sense": "(And) everything",
          "word": "minden"
        },
        {
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "(And) everything",
          "word": "y toda la pesca"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "the whole nine yards"
  ],
  "word": "the whole nine yards"
}

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    "English positive polarity items",
    "Entries with translation boxes",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries",
    "Terms with Dutch translations",
    "Terms with Finnish translations",
    "Terms with German translations",
    "Terms with Hungarian translations",
    "Terms with Spanish translations",
    "en:Nine"
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Dave Wilton summarises the findings of Bonnie Taylor-Blake and others:\n:The phrase doesn’t have one particular origin, nor does it represent one particular metaphor. Instead, it seems to have evolved from a sense of yard meaning a vague quantity of something. Later, the words full or whole were attached to it, and even later it was quantified by the numbers six and nine, with the whole nine yards eventually winning out and becoming the canonical form. Use of the full phrase was for a long time restricted to the American Midwest, in particular to the region around the Kentucky-Indiana border, before breaking out into general American parlance in the middle of the twentieth century. …\n:So regardless of what someone else has told you, the whole nine yards does not refer to the length of a belt of WWII machine-gun ammunition, the amount of material needed to make a Scottish kilt or a sari, the number of spars on a sailing ship, the amount of concrete a cement mixer holds, or anything else.",
  "head_templates": [
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        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
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        {
          "ref": "2007, Thomas Mchenry, Along the Rails: A Juror's Journey, page 85:",
          "text": "Would they want me to vote my conscience or would they want us to unanimously go the whole nine yards, declare him sane and possibly have the trial end up in a death sentence?",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2007, R. D. Reynolds, The Wrestlecrap Book of Lists!, page 18:",
          "text": "WWE went the whole nine yards, from making Tshirts with the slogan to having announcers mention his new handle approximately every four seconds anytime he was on-screen.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2012, Susan Stephens, Working with the Enemy, page 164:",
          "text": "Colleen had gone the whole nine yards, dressing up as a fortune teller, complete with huge gold earrings and a headscarf, which she'd plucked from her normal accessory box, she told Bronte.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "All the way; with everything done completely or thoroughly."
      ],
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          "All the way",
          "all the way"
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      ]
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "the whole nine yards"
  ],
  "word": "the whole nine yards"
}

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    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries",
    "Terms with Dutch translations",
    "Terms with Finnish translations",
    "Terms with German translations",
    "Terms with Hungarian translations",
    "Terms with Spanish translations",
    "en:Nine"
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  "etymology_text": "Dave Wilton summarises the findings of Bonnie Taylor-Blake and others:\n:The phrase doesn’t have one particular origin, nor does it represent one particular metaphor. Instead, it seems to have evolved from a sense of yard meaning a vague quantity of something. Later, the words full or whole were attached to it, and even later it was quantified by the numbers six and nine, with the whole nine yards eventually winning out and becoming the canonical form. Use of the full phrase was for a long time restricted to the American Midwest, in particular to the region around the Kentucky-Indiana border, before breaking out into general American parlance in the middle of the twentieth century. …\n:So regardless of what someone else has told you, the whole nine yards does not refer to the length of a belt of WWII machine-gun ammunition, the amount of material needed to make a Scottish kilt or a sari, the number of spars on a sailing ship, the amount of concrete a cement mixer holds, or anything else.",
  "head_templates": [
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
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        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1908 June 4, The Mitchell Commercial, Lawrence County, Indiana, retrieved 2018-08-14, page 3, col.5:",
          "text": "While there Roscoe went fishing and has a big story to tell, but we refuse to stand while he unloads. He will catch some unsuspecting individual some of these days and give him the whole nine yards.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2002, Mary Losure, Our Way Or the Highway: Inside the Minnehaha Free State, page 161:",
          "text": "\"I had a good job, a nice little house, the whole nine yards,\" she said.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2009, Jason Barbacovi, Me and Chairman Mao, page 101:",
          "text": "No, to her credit she kept right on going the whole time, telling me how she was from Mongolia, how she was an art student, how she was having an exhibition — the whole nine yards.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2009, Reynaldo Laureano, Politics Vs. Prejudice in the Highway Patrol, page 46:",
          "text": "Mario asked me to explain to him the whole nine yards so I decided to start off on a good note.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "everything; often used, like etc., to finish out a list."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "everything",
          "everything"
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          "etc.",
          "etc.#English"
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      "raw_glosses": [
        "(And) everything; often used, like etc., to finish out a list."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "everything"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "nl",
      "lang": "Dutch",
      "sense": "(And) everything",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "hottentottententententoonstelling"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "(And) everything",
      "word": "koko hoito"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "(And) everything",
      "word": "koko potti"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "(And) everything",
      "word": "helahoito"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "(And) everything",
      "word": "das volle Programm"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "(And) everything",
      "word": "minden"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "(And) everything",
      "word": "y toda la pesca"
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "the whole nine yards"
  ],
  "word": "the whole nine yards"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-21 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-12-04 using wiktextract (d8cb2f3 and 4e554ae). 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.

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