Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The lot, group, or bunch.
  • noun A crowd or collection of people.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Crowd; pack; lot; company: used only with whole: as, the whole caboodle (that is, the whole number, crowd, or quantity).

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Slang, U.S. The whole collection; the entire quantity or number; -- usually in the phrase the whole caboodle or the whole kit and caboodle.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun any large collection of things or people

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun any collection in its entirety

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Alteration of boodle.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

US slang, mid 19th century, thought to be from "kit and boodle"; "the whole boodle" is attested in the 1830s, and "the whole caboodle" in 1848. Recently resurrected in Fife, Scotland and published in Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals, Steps by Adamson, K. in 2011.

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Examples

  • He is, Shorty exclaims, the "hi-yu skookum top chief of the whole caboodle," and the caboodle is 20,000 square miles of wilderness, home to a hundred thousand caribou hunted by a people using bone-barbed arrows and bone knives.

    “I am only a wild girl, and I am afraid of the world....” 2008

  • A caboodle of Anglican illuminati, including Michael Ingham – who obviously does believe in something other than marrying homosexuals – has signed a declaration that states:

    2009 December « Anglican Samizdat 2009

  • The whole kit and caboodle sped from Los Angeles to New Orleans at 70 miles per hour, stopping six times along the way to put on shows.

    Rita Houston: Rita's Railroad Revival Rita Houston 2011

  • The whole kit and caboodle sped from Los Angeles to New Orleans at 70 miles per hour, stopping six times along the way to put on shows.

    Rita Houston: Rita's Railroad Revival Rita Houston 2011

  • The whole kit and caboodle sped from Los Angeles to New Orleans at 70 miles per hour, stopping six times along the way to put on shows.

    Rita Houston: Rita's Railroad Revival Rita Houston 2011

  • A caboodle of Anglican illuminati, including Michael Ingham – who obviously does believe in something other than marrying homosexuals – has signed a declaration that states:

    In the Anglican Church of Canada, climate change has replaced sin « Anglican Samizdat 2009

  • Another part of it is that consciousness CREATES space-time and from that creation comes particularity and from that ability of particularity to exist gradually emerge both inanimate and inanimate life forms all of which dwell within the larger context of the space-time continuum which itself is a veritable ocean, if you will, of 'consciousness' in which the whole kit and caboodle continuously swims.

    Another Look 2009

  • I hated the whole religious kit and caboodle at such a young age, and still often wonder where the line of demarcation is between suffering from regular mental illness and just being Jewish.

    Roseanne Archy Roseanne Barr 2011

  • When Scotty (not "Scottie") beams him up, he should also make sure to add that Tribble on Traficant's head to the whole kit and caboodle he already beamed into the Klingon engine room.

    'Beam me up' to Capitol Hill 2010

  • They're selected on a schedule and by demographic in order to fuel the casino of writing programs, writing manuals, workshops, the whole company store, outlets and franchises, kit and caboodle.

    Deep-Hearted 2010

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  • US Railway Association, Standard Cipher Code, 1906: Railroad telegraph shorthand for "When can you call?"

    January 21, 2013