whole shebang

English

Alternative forms

• whole chebang
• whole shebangs

Etymology

1924, from shebang.

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU):

  (file)

Noun

whole shebang (plural whole shebangs)

1. (idiomatic, with "the") Everything; the entire thing.

   The festival had balloons, flowers, fireworks, performers, and the whole shebang.

   • 1924, Harold Hart Crane, letter:

     I am growing more and more sick of factions, gossip, jealousies, recriminations, excoriations and the whole literary shee-bang.

   • 2002, Treasure Planet, directed by Ron Clements and John Musker

     Doctor, I'd love to chat. Tea, cake, the whole shebang. But I've got a ship to launch and you've got your outfit to buff up.

   • 2004, Leo Furey, The Long Run, page 331,

     “Food here's pretty good. They don't serve bog juice. Real tea and real coffee. Ice cream, pop, chips. The whole shebang. Every day's a wingding, brother.”

   • 2011, Dave Thompson, 1000 Songs that Rock Your World, page 209,

     Of course, they would win the whole shebang in 1974, when “Waterloo” [won] (sung in English by Swedes about a Frenchman in Belgium— how much more international can one song get?), but the bitter taste of past failures is not something one forgets...

   • 2011, Diane Phillips, Slow Cooker: The Best Cookbook Ever with More Than 400 Easy-to-Make Recipes, page 305,

     The whole shebang cooks in the slow cooker, which will keep it warm until you are ready to serve it.

Translations

the entire thing

• Catalan: tot plegat
• Dutch: de hele rataplan, de hele mikmak, de hele reutemeteut
• Finnish: koko helahoito, koko repertoaari, koko roska, koko hoito, ihan kaikki
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• French: tout le bataclan
• Hungarian: hóbelevanc (hu), miskulancia, minden, ami kell, ami csak kell
• Swedish: allt (sv), rubbet (sv)

See also

• for a list of other "whole ___" terms that mean "everything / the whole thing", see the whole nine yards