# Kit and Kaboodle?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kit-and-kaboodle/181925>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 15, 2003, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kit-and-kaboodle/181925 "2003-06-15T00:09:35Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![ltfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@ltfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ltfire)\
**Post date:** [June 15, 2003, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kit-and-kaboodle/181925/1 "2003-06-15T00:09:35Z")

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Means what? I’ve used this term myself, probably hearing it from my parents.  
I take it to mean ‘everything’, ‘all of something’, or, the whole nine yards. Am I even close?

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**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\
**Post date:** [June 15, 2003, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kit-and-kaboodle/181925/2 "2003-06-15T00:11:23Z")

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Yes, that’s exactly what it means.

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**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\
**Post date:** [June 15, 2003, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kit-and-kaboodle/181925/3 "2003-06-15T00:12:48Z")

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Ooops…meant to include [this link](http://phrases.shu.ac.uk/bulletin_board/2/messages/329.html) with a theory on the origin of the phrase.

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**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\
**Post date:** [June 15, 2003, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kit-and-kaboodle/181925/4 "2003-06-15T01:02:23Z")

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A more thorough and better discussion is offered over at the website kept by [Michael Quinion](http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-who2.htm)

**QED.** You are wonderfully valuable in your rapid ability to respond to poster’s questions. So, I’ll share a site with you, assuming that you don’t know about it.

[http://www.alt-usage-english.org/concordance\_interface.shtml](http://www.alt-usage-english.org/concordance_interface.shtml)

Your phrase-finder site is OK, but quite often offers merely opinions. I use it myself to get insight into phrases I can’t track down on better researched etymology sites, such as the one I’ve linked to above.

(A caution about the site that I offered: just don’t trust the “A Word With You” info. It’s crap). Don’t click on “AWWY”