whole shebang

the whole shebang

The entirety of something, including all things related to it. While I'm in London, I want to see Big Ben, the palace, the whole shebang.
See also: shebang, whole
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

whole shebang

everything; the whole thing. Mary's all set to give a fancy dinner party. She's got a fine tablecloth, good crystal, and silverware, the whole shebang. How much do you want for the whole shebang?
See also: shebang, whole
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.

whole shebang

Also, whole shooting match. See whole ball of wax.
See also: shebang, whole
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.

whole shebang, the

The entire structure; the whole business and everything connected with it. The precise meaning of shebang in this phrase has been lost. It dates from mid-nineteenth century America, when it denoted a hut or shack, which makes no sense in the current cliché. Bret Harte used it: “That don’t fetch me even of [sic] he’d chartered the whole shebang” (“The Story of a Mine,” 1877). An alliterative synonym is the whole shooting match (also put as the whole shoot). Originally this meant a shooting competition, a usage dating from the mid-1700s. The addition of whole and the figurative meaning are much newer, dating from the 1900s. Also see kit and caboodle.
See also: whole
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
See also:
  • shebang
  • the whole shebang
  • whole shebang, the
  • the whole shooting match
  • the whole lot
  • the whole jimbang
  • the whole jingbang
  • the whole megillah
  • whole megillah
  • Megillah
References in periodicals archive
As your article implied, the LCVP [Landing Craft, Vehicle, Personnel] was truly the workhorse of the whole shebang. LCVPs were great boats for one reason: the thing that made them go.
Ode to the Higgins boat
The common people lumped in the occult with the equally mysterious (but more traditional) arts and sciences and labeled the whole shebang grammar.
Grammar
One consequence of a wraparound universe--he personally favors a spherical dodecahedron--is that the whole shebang may be a lot smaller than it looks.
The wraparound universe
There are so many wonderful prophets and priests among the people in the pews who are magnificently qualified to preside at Eucharist, deliver homilies, and run the whole shebang. If they would be allowed to utilize their creativity and wisdom in positions of full leadership in our parishes, there would be a fiery and passionate revival of parish life in our dioceses, and we would hear no more about the alleged priest shortage.
Wisdom or folly?
The hide though (in my opinion) is what rolled the ball on the whole shebang, as somebody needed it to cover a bare spot some centuries back.
California leather works
The Dreamgirls star wrote, arranged, and coproduced the whole shebang, assisted by the Neptunes, Swizz Beatz, and others.
Pop music
Die Walkure will follow next Fall, Siegfried in 2007-08 and we'll get the whole shebang in 2009.
Washington
Try House of Fraser (www.houseoffraser.co.uk) and Ikea (www.ikea.com) for genuine looking blooms and, as we've suggested previously, add real greenery to inexpensively bring the whole shebang to life
TRICKS OF THE TRADE
One wrong move and the whole shebang will crash down on you.
Hook it up right
The photographer missed the whole shebang for his directorial debut, "'Rize" (last-minute shoot, perhaps?).
The tribeca trot
On cosmic size scales ranging from individual galaxies to the whole shebang, the distribution of dark matter provides clues about this substance's nature and past.
Dark influence: most of the universe's matter is out of sight, but not out of mind
Note all of your classes and activities; add in homework, chores, phone chats, Web-surfing, the whole shebang 'til bedtime.
Bust that burnout!
The whole shebang came down, in other words, because of Roseanne and Gloria Steinem, not because of Islamic Jihad and Mohammed Atta and his virgin-seeking squadron of flyboys.
In the name of God
Including three years of maintenance and a tc2120 server that acted as an application server, the whole shebang cost $36,391, but after a 14% system discount and some other small goodies, HP shaved 10% off the cost of the entire configuration, yielding a final price of $32,772 or $1.91 per TPM.
HP Breaks Through $2 Per TPM Floor with ML350 Server
What has held me back so far has been electronics to control the whole shebang, but I have recently taken some steps to finally bring my surround-sound setup to actualization.
A silent minority?