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Glite Dictionary
as all get-out

as all get-out

1 9.9
A very informal phrase people use to mean extremely
  • idiom
  • Informal
translation icon : extremadamente
  • Just stressful as all get out trying to run from client to client, get back home, and change for a choral concert at the college where my husband works.

You know, I mean, you were tall as all get out and and and scarily skinny.

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Examples

  • Loud as all get-out.

    North Country (2005)

  • You know, I mean, you were tall as all get out and and and scarily skinny.

    Ear Biscuits

  • Naked naked naked, naked as all get-out.

    Super Zeroes (2012)

  • I was 22 years old, in college, and naive as all get-out after going to a girls' school for my whole previous life.

    Blog text (18)

  • "I'll bet your delts looked killer as all get-out," says the pancake guy.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • She was excited as all get-out when she heard she won the contest.

  • The puppy was playful as all get-out, running around the yard.

  • He was happy as all get-out to see his friends after so long.

Synonyms

awfully
vsas all get-out
351 1.4

To show strong feeling or degree

is more idiomatic and informal than this general intensifier
utterly
vsas all get-out
236 3.6

Completely, to show that something is very strong or very great

is an informal intensifier focusing on very high degree
ever so
vsas all get-out
80 4.2

To make an adjective or adverb much stronger

is more informal and stronger than this gentler emphasis
completely and utterly
vsas all get-out
8 2.3

Totally and without any doubt

is used informally to stress great degree not absolute totality
all-fired
vsas all get-out
  • Archaic
2 9.9

Very, put before a describing word to show strong feeling

is a colloquial idiom used to stress how very something is
all get out
vsas all get-out
  • Informal
1 9.9

A very large amount or degree that people use to show emphasis

is an informal idiom used to stress extreme degree

Antonyms

barely
∞ 1.0

Happens only by a very small amount

not at all
331 1.0

In no way

How Intense

extremely
∞ 1.0
as all get-out
  • Informal
1 9.9
quite
∞ 1.0
a little
∞ 1.0

Surface Forms

as all get-out positive

Morphology

as + all + get-out

The phrase 'as all get-out' is a colloquial intensifier whose meaning 'extremely/very' is not derivable from the literal meanings of 'as', 'all' and the non-transparent fragment 'get-out'. The construction is idiomatic and regionally informal, so a B1 learner who knows the component words would not reliably infer the emphatic meaning without prior exposure.

Etymology

As all get-out may come from old American slang where get-out meant 'as far out as you can get'. So saying something is as all get-out gives a picture of it taken to the limit, and now the phrase means 'extremely' or 'very much'.