cover the waterfront

English

Verb

cover the waterfront (third-person singular simple present covers the waterfront, present participle covering the waterfront, simple past and past participle covered the waterfront)

1. To cover every aspect of a topic or situation.
   • 1975, J. W. George Ivany, Today's Science:

     But on the other hand, we continue to see huge sales of teacher-oriented textbooks that cover the waterfront of the major facts, laws, and theories in each and every domain of science.

   • 1991, Stephen King, Needful Things:

     "I hear you," Polly said. "I do feel better, I can't help it, and I'm very grateful for it. Does that about cover the waterfront?"

   • 2023, Lac Du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians v. Coughlin (U.S. Supreme Court No. 22–227), Justice Jackson (majority opinion):

     For another, whereas the pairing of “foreign” and “domestic” often covers the waterfront,... the dissent’s hypothetical pairings do not have that same effect. And unlike animals (which need not be small or doglike) or ice creams (which need not be chocolate or vanilla), every government must be foreign or domestic to some degree; the question is just where on the spectrum it falls.