lock, stock and barrel

Definition

Entirely, completely.

Etymology

From the three principal parts of a flintlock. The explanation that it refers to all of a shopkeeper’s possessions—the lock to the door, the stock in trade and the items stored in barrels—is fanciful. First attested in an 1817 letter by the Scottish novelist Walter Scott (see quotation).

Example Sentences

• "They want to buy the whole thing, lock, stock and barrel."
• "I do not believe I should save £100 by retaining Mrs. Redford, by the time she was raised, altered, and beautified, for, like the Highlandman’s gun, she wants stock, lock, and barrel to put her into repair."
• "Supposing the whole Castro regime—lock, stock and barrel—were to be swept out by counter-revolutionaries as effectively as the Batista regime was cleared out[…]"