all over

Dictionary of American Words And Phrases by John Russell Bartlett.

Bearing a resemblance to some particular object. The word is common in familiar language.


The Southern Standard, in noticing Dombey and Son, says: "We have read this work so far with great interest; it is Dickens all over." Meaning that it partakes fully of the character of Dickens's writings.

By the following example it appears that English writers use the word in the same sense. Sir George Simpson, in speaking of the indolence of the Californians, and of the deficiencies in all the comforts of life, says:

The only articles on the bare floor, were some gaudy chairs from the Sandwich Islands. This was California all over; the richest and most influential individual in a professedly civilized country, obliged to borrow the means of sitting from savages.--Journey round the World, Vol. I. p.173.

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