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Definition of Be-all and end-all
1. Noun. The essential factor; the all-important element; the supreme aim. "Profit is the be-all and end-all of business"
Generic synonyms: Component, Constituent, Element, Factor, Ingredient
Definition of Be-all and end-all
1. Noun. (idiomatic) Something considered to be of the utmost importance; something essential or ultimate. ¹
¹ Source: wiktionary.com
Lexicographical Neighbors of Be-all And End-all
Literary usage of Be-all and end-all
Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:
1. The Edinburgh Review by Sydney Smith (1869)
"A glance at this chart will show the reader that the regard to the filial relations
which is popularly supposed to be the Be-all and End-all of Chinese ..."
2. Punch by Mark Lemon, Henry Mayhew, Tom Taylor, Shirley Brooks, Francis Cowley Burnand, Owen Seaman (1883)
"I ne'er was a Member of Parliament, And never shall be one, I fear ; But the
be-all and end-all of my public life \ At the end of the Chorus they join hands ..."
3. Macmillan's Magazine by David Masson, George Grove, John Morley, Mowbray Morris (1868)
"There are a few happy souls indeed to whom nature and the study of nature becomes
the “be all and end all” of existence. With no Nemesis of fbi'lected duty ..."
4. The Political Thought of Plato and Aristotle by Ernest Barker (1906)
"... communion he had imagined that he •would increase the sense of community,
which Aristotle thinks "he had thus made the be-all and end-all of the State. ..."
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