all sorts of

Dictionary of American Words And Phrases by John Russell Bartlett.

A Southern expression, synonymous with expert, acute, excellent, capital. It answers to the English slang term bang-up. It is a prevalent idiom of low life, and often heard in the colloquial language of the better informed. A man who in New England would be called a curious or a smart fellow, would in the South be called all sorts of a fellow. Sometimes one hears the expression "all sorts of a horse," or, "all sorts of a road."


She was all sorts of a gal--there warn't a sprinklin' too much of her--she had an eye that would make a fellow's heart try to get out of his bosom;--her step was light as a panther's, and her breath sweet as a prairie flower.--Robb, Squatter Life.

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