Idiom – Everything But The Kitchen Sink

Everything But The Kitchen Sink – Idiom of the Day

Meaning:

Leaving almost nothing. Having everything possible.

History:

History dates back to the early 19th century. The phrase was officially published in ‘The Syracuse Herald’ in 1918. During world war II, the expression shot to fame, when the term was used to denote that almost everything possible was used against the enemy. This idiom has an ancestor called “everything but the kitchen stove”. The references to the ancestral phrase can be found in the Jeffersonville National Democraft in 1894.

Idiom scenarios:

Scenario 1:

Neighbour: Why does the house look empty?
House owner: That’s because the tenant took everything but the kitchen sink.
Neighbour: Oh! No.

Scenario 2:

Friend 1: What do we need to pack for our trip to the mountains?
Friend 2: Take your jackets, shoes, scarves, some cotton wool, all winter clothes, some snacks, water bottles and your camera.
Friend 1: Oh! We’re going to carry everything but the kitchen sink.

Scenario 3:

Mrs. John: My son was on leave y’day because he was sick. So we need your help.
Mrs. Kim: Of course, yes! What do you want?
Mrs. John: We need the notebooks and textbooks. Also we have moved to the new house and nothing is in place. So we would need your son’s geometry box, sketch pens and .. And yes.. your son’s scientific calculator as well.
Mrs. John: You seem to need everything but the kitchen sink.

Examples:

Go through the examples to understand the usage of the idiom:

1. When his grandmother went to the US, she carried everything but the kitchen sink.
2. “The residents say that the supermarket has everything but the kitchen sink.”
3. “This new book on space theory has everything but the kitchen sink.”