This week's theme
Fossil words

This week's words
petard
druthers
dudgeon
caboodle
shrift

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(kuh-BOOD-uhl)

MEANING:

noun: The lot, collection, or crowd.

NOTES:

The word is mostly seen in the expression "kit and caboodle" meaning "the whole lot".

ETYMOLOGY:

Perhaps from boodle (money, goods, people), from Dutch boedel (property). Earliest documented use: 1848.

USAGE:

"New York City teems with questionable urban legends. But the fable about the postal clerk and his wife, a Brooklyn librarian, scrimping to amass an astounding collection of modern art, cramming all 5,000 pieces in a rent-controlled one-bedroom apartment, then donating the whole kit and caboodle to the National Gallery of Art in Washington and galleries in all 50 states, is true."
Douglas Martin; Herbert Vogel, Fabled Art Collector, Dies at 89; The New York Times; Jul 24, 2012.

"Theresa cruised through the office once a month with a caboodle full of scissors, smocks, and hair color."
Lisa Baron; Life of the Party; Citadel Press; 2011.

See more usage examples of caboodle in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: