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in the altogether

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al⋅to⋅geth⋅er

  [awl-tuh-geth-er, awl-tuh-geth-er]
Use in the altogether in a Sentence
–adverb
1. wholly; entirely; completely; quite: altogether fitting.
2. with all or everything included: The debt amounted altogether to twenty dollars.
3. with everything considered; on the whole: Altogether, I'm glad it's over.
—Idiom
4. in the altogether, Informal. nude: When the phone rang she had just stepped out of the bathtub and was in the altogether.
Origin:
1125–75; var. of ME altogeder. See all, together

Synonyms:
1. utterly, totally, absolutely.

Usage note:
The forms altogether and all together, though often indistinguishable in speech, are distinct in meaning. The adverb altogether means “wholly, entirely, completely”: an altogether confused scene. The phrase all together means “in a group”: The children were all together in the kitchen. This all can be omitted without seriously affecting the meaning: The children were together in the kitchen.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Word Origin & History

altogether 
M.E., a strengthened form of all, used in the sense of "a whole" from 1667. The altogether "nude" is from 1894.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Idioms & Phrases

in the altogether

Also, in or stripped to the buff; in the raw. Naked, nude, as in The art class wanted a model to pose in the altogether, or She was stripped to the buff when the doorbell rang, or He always sleeps in the raw. The first of these colloquial terms dates from the late 1800s. In the buff, a seemingly modern locution dates from the 1600s, buff alluding to a soft, undyed leather, buffskin, that also gave its name to the color. The use of raw, presumably also alluding to raw (undressed) leather, dates from the early 1900s.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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