Be all and end all
the central and all-important part:
His work was the be-all and end-all of his existence.
noun (informal)
the ultimate aim or justification: to provide help for others is the be-all and end-all of this group
(often jocular) a person or thing considered to be beyond improvement
noun
The mouth, esp regarded as a speech organ The meaning shifted from ”horn, trumpet” in phrases like ”blow one’s own bazoo” and ”the silvery tinkle of his bazoo,” attested in the mid-1800s: if you would close that big bazoo
Related Terms
shoot off one’s mouth
[1900s+; apparently fr Dutch bazuin, ”trumpet”]
Read Also:
- Be all ears
the organ of hearing and equilibrium in vertebrates, in humans consisting of an external ear that gathers sound vibrations, a middle ear in which the vibrations resonate against the tympanic membrane, and a fluid-filled internal ear that maintains balance and that conducts the tympanic vibrations to the auditory nerve, which transmits them as impulses to […]
- Be along
through, on, beside, over, or parallel to the length or direction of; from one end to the other of: to walk along a highway; to run a border along a shelf. during; in the course of: Somewhere along the way I lost my hat. in conformity or accordance with: I plan to revise the article […]
- Eye
the organ of sight, in vertebrates typically one of a pair of spherical bodies contained in an orbit of the skull and in humans appearing externally as a dense, white, curved membrane, or sclera, surrounding a circular, colored portion, or iris, that is covered by a clear, curved membrane, or cornea, and in the center […]
- Beam-ends
Nautical. the ends of the transverse deck beams of a vessel. on her beam-ends, Nautical. heeled so far on one side that the deck is practically vertical: The schooner was blown over on her beam-ends. on one’s / the beam-ends, Slang. in desperate straits, especially financial straits. Also, on the beam’s ends. Historical Examples If […]
- Word
a unit of language, consisting of one or more spoken sounds or their written representation, that functions as a principal carrier of meaning. Words are composed of one or more morphemes and are either the smallest units susceptible of independent use or consist of two or three such units combined under certain linking conditions, as […]