the whole enchilada
4
7.0
- idiom
- Informal
- Congratulations to Greg Meyers, the only school board member with enough common sense to agree HISD should earn the voters' trust first before asking for the whole enchilada.
- win the whole enchilada
- just go for the whole enchilada
Examples
-
I mean black tie, white gown, the whole enchilada.
-
But in order for that to work, we'd have to restart the whole thing: representatives, congressmen, judges, the whole enchilada.
Blog text (20) -
I might as well go for the whole enchilada.
-
We got the whole enchilada.
-
This risks losing the whole enchilada.
Academic text (1990) -
Got TV cameras, reporters, the whole enchilada.
-
I can't take on the whole enchilada.
-
That's the whole enchilada that made this country great, man.
-
We didn't want to backpedal; that could cost us the whole enchilada.
Blog text (2) -
If you want to succeed in this business, you have to take the whole enchilada, not just part of it.
Synonyms
∞
1.0
All the things or all that someone has
484
1.0
All of something seen as one unit
7
8.0
Everything that is part of something
5
7.7
All the things and people in a group or place
4
6.7
All the things and people connected with something
1
7.4
Including everything from the beginning to the end
1
7.7
All the things or people involved
All the things in a group or set
Antonyms
How Complete
Surface Forms
Morphology
the + whole + enchilada
The adjective 'whole' clearly signals totality, while 'enchilada' is a specific food item (a Spanish loanword). Combining them yields a literal meaning 'the entire enchilada' and a plausible metaphorical extension to 'the whole thing', but this idiomatic extension depends on cultural/figurative knowledge rather than straightforward compositional logic, so a learner who knows the words might guess but not reliably infer the idiomatic sense.
Etymology
The idiom the whole enchilada may come from the idea of a full Mexican meal. One popular story says that getting the enchilada with every side meant you had the complete plate, so the phrase now means 'everything' or 'the whole thing'.