every nook and cranny
7
4.1
- idiom
- Informal
:
cada rincón y cada esquina
- Perrin went up to the topmost part of the lighthouse, carefully searched every nook and cranny down to the outside entrance.
Outside every nook and cranny of your body is a veritable cesspool of bacteria, viruses and fungus.
- Outside every nook and cranny of your body is a veritable cesspool of bacteria, viruses and fungus.
Examples
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The detective examined every nook and cranny to find clues about the case.
-
The children roamed the observatory, exploring every nook and cranny, to the point that the department formally voted to warn one of them not to disturb readers in the library.
Academic text (1993) -
looking through every nook and cranny in his life.
-
I know every nook and cranny, every secret spot.
-
Now they were looking in every nook and cranny.
Fiction book (2000) -
And the stuff in their home, it filled every nook and cranny.
-
She's been out searching every nook and cranny for her lost baby.
-
Creativity pervaded every nook and cranny of Commodore Battery Park on August 25 and 26, 2012.
Blog text (22) -
Aglow with light and warmth, every nook and cranny is filled with the colorful, crazy collections of the eccentric owner.
Blog text (14) -
I've searched every nook and cranny of the house for my lost keys.
Synonyms
∞
1.0
In every part of a place
10
3.8
All the small hidden parts of a place
7
4.2
Completely in every way possible
3
4.2
Small hidden places that are hard to find or reach
In every possible place
How Thorough
- Informal
7
4.1
∞
1.0
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly built from 'every' (each) plus 'nook' and 'cranny' (both denoting small corners or hidden spaces), so a learner who knows those words can infer it refers to all small parts or hidden areas. Although 'nook and cranny' is a fixed binomial, the semantic contribution of the constituents is transparent and cross-linguistically replicable, making it readily understandable at B1.
Etymology
Every nook and cranny comes from two simple words, nook, a small corner, and cranny, a tiny crack or opening. The picture of someone looking into every little corner and crack made the phrase mean 'every part' of a place, including hidden or hard-to-see spots.