from soup to nuts

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Idioms and Phrases

Also, from A to Z or start to finish or stem to stern . From beginning to end, throughout, as in We went through the whole agenda, from soup to nuts , or She had to learn a whole new system from A to Z , or It rained from start to finish , or We did over the whole house from stem to stern . The first expression, with its analogy to the first and last courses of a meal, appeared in slightly different forms (such as from potage to cheese ) from the 1500s on; the precise wording here dates only from the mid-1900s. The second expression alludes to the first and last letters of the Roman alphabet; see also alpha and omega . The third comes from racing and alludes to the entire course of the race; it dates from the mid-1800s. The last variant is nautical, alluding to the front or stem , and rear or stern , of a vessel.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

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