Wiktionary

kitchen sink

English edit

Etymology edit

Figurative sense probably from everything but the kitchen sink.

Pronunciation edit

  • Audio (AU)(file)

Noun edit

kitchen sink (plural kitchen sinks)

  1. (literal) A sink in a kitchen used for washing dishes and preparing food.
    The kitchen sink was piled high with dirty dishes.
  2. (figurative) A miscellany or a miscellaneous item; an item exemplifying an indiscriminate profusion.
    They threw the kitchen sink at the problem, but still they couldn't fix it.
    • 1994 October, P. J. O'Rourke, “Fashionable worries”, in American Spectator, volume 27, number 10, page 36:
      Andy quoted one of the trainers (or facilitators, as they like to be called), whose job it is to instill " sensitivity " about age, race, gender, disability, sexual orientation, and the kitchen sink into employees of Washington businesses:
    • 1997 April 13, Frederic M. Biddle, “It^s morning that matters; ; Networks find a bright spot at daybreak;”, in Chicago Sun-Times, page 22:
      The morning shows are now kitchen sinks, sometimes setting the network's news agenda for the day with interviews but always repeating bits of the previous night's newscasts, while promoting what's going to air on that night's shows.
    • 2000 April 6, John McChesney, “Analysis: Stock market volatility and its possible effects on investors”, in NPR_TalkNation:
      I think the most vulnerable stocks, as I understand it, in this situation are the what we call business-to-consumer Internet commerce stocks, selling everything from cars to kitchen sinks on the Internet.
    • 2005 March 19, “A Look at How New Technology Around World Impacts Environment”, in CNN_Global:
      [The ferocious waves'] wrath was indiscriminate. And in the aftermath, from kitchen sinks to televisions, all the amenities of land are occupying the ocean's landscape.
    • 2007 November, LeapFrog Enterprises Inc, “Top toys”, in Todays Parent, volume 24, number 11, page 75:
      How good are you at packing a car's trunk? Decide how big a challenge you want, then choose your cards to find out which of the crazy items - everything from a spare tire to the kitchen sink - you need to cram in.
    • 2017 January 29, Nick Patch, “The story of ‘Drinking in L.A.,’ 20 years later”, in Toronto Star‎[1]:
      It’s been 20 years since “Drinking in L.A.” and Bran Van 3000’s eclectic debut Glee dropped back in February 1997, when the group’s hip, kitschy, kitchen-sink esthetic and genre-defying mixtape intoxication were so en vogue that even Madonna was drawn into the bidding war.

Derived terms edit

Translations edit

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