The Whole Kit and Caboodle

The word kit is used in this idiom to mean ‘everything needed; all the equipment, supplies, etc. for a given task. It especially refers, in this sense, to the est of objects, tools, etc. that someone like a soldier might carry around. Caboodle was an Americanism with a similar meaning, often referring to an entire group of people or ‘the lot of them.’ Only the former word survives in English and caboodle is only heard in the idiom ‘the whole kit and caboodle.’

Also used:
The whole caboodle
The whole kit
The whole kit and kaboodle

Meaning of Idiom ‘The Whole Kit and Caboodle’

The whole kit and caboodle means everything; every part; all of it; everything associated; all the pieces and equipment; all the belongings of a person; the whole of something. 1Ammer, Christine. American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013.,2Heacock, Paul. Cambridge Dictionary of American Idioms]. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2010.,3Spears, Richard A. McGraw-Hill’s American Idioms Dictionary. Boston: McGraw Hill, 2008.,4”Kit and Caboodle.” Collins Dictionary,https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/kit-and-caboodle. Accessed 26 September 2024.

Sentence Examples

“I’m giving away the whole kit and caboodle.”

“Everything must go, the whole kit and caboodle! I’m moving and I don’t want to take all this stuff with me.”

“My father pissed off the plumber so much that he packed up his stuff, the whole kit and caboodle, and walked out without saying a word.”

“Will that be all for you, Truman?” “That’s the whole kit and caboodle.” — The Truman Show (1998)

“I hate to lose a good cop. Not too late to change your mind. Lot of good cops want to drop the whole kit and caboodle.” — Falling Down (1993)

“Last week, my stock was worth twice what it is now. I think I’ll sell the whole kit and caboodle, boy, unless I see a vast improvement.” —  The Hudsucker Proxy (1994)

“Can’t leave it like this for the next picnickers that come. Here. Get to work, the whole kit and caboodle of you. Burn all that rubbish.” —  Carousel (1956)

“You gave them to the Klingons?” “Aye. Before they went into warp, I transported the whole kit and caboodle into their engine room, where they’ll be no “tribble” at all.” — Star Trek: The Trouble with Tribbles (1967)

“One fine day, I broke his nose. I been running from ’em ever since, the whole kit ‘n’ caboodle of ’em.” — Bad Company (1972)

Origin

The idiom kit and caboodle has been used since the latter part of the 1820s. It seems to be a corruption of the expression ‘kit and boodle’, where boodle meant ‘the whole lot.’ The term especially referred to a whole group of people. Since the word kit was used in a similar sense, this idiom is somewhat redundant.

Although kit is still used in this sense today (mid-1700s), referring to the entire set of objects, equipment, tools, etc. one needs or uses (see above), caboodle only survives in the idiom, making it a fossil word.

More Fossil Words