be-all
English
Noun
be-all (plural be-alls)
- (poetic) The whole; all that is to be.
- a. 1606, Shakespeare, William, Macbeth, act 1, scene 7, lines 4–5:
- That but this blow / Might be the be-all and the end-all!
- 2007, Kirbyjon H. Caldwell, Be In It to Win It:
- […] to be happy with their lot in life, content with things as they are, things that may once have been be-alls and absolute end-alls but that lost their intoxication after five years, put them on automatic pilot after ten and became a prison after fifteen.
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Derived terms
- be-all and end-all, end-all and be-all
Anagrams
- Abell, Bella, label