yards Idiom, Proverb

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the whole nine yards

including all the work, doing the whole job, the whole ball of wax My goals include a degree, career, marriage, children - the whole nine yards.

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Whole nine yards

The whole nine yards means means everything that is necessary or required for something.

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whole nine yards, the

whole nine yards, the
Everything that is relevant; the whole thing. For example, He decided to take everything to college—his books, his stereo, his computer, his skis, the whole nine yards. The source of this expression is not known, but there are several possibilities: the amount of cloth required to make a complete suit of clothes; the fully set sails of a three-masted ship where each mast carries three yards, that is, spars, to support the sails; or the amount of cement (in cubic yards) contained in a cement mixer for a big construction job. [Colloquial]