Meaning of kitchen sink | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A sink in a kitchen used for washing crockery, cutlery, utensils, food, etc., and disposing of waste.
2. A miscellaneous item or a miscellany, especially exemplifying an indiscriminate profusion.
   also, attributive, figuratively
3. In chained or tied to the kitchen sink, etc.: domestic chores or housework, especially when regarded as menial and tedious.
   figuratively, metonymically
4. A thing regarded as defiled due to corruption, immorality, etc.
   figuratively, obsolete

Equivalents

Examples

“The kitchen sink was piled high with dirty dishes.”

“They threw the kitchen sink at the problem, but still couldn’t fix it.”

“The April 1994 issue of Washingtonian ran an article by my friend Andrew Ferguson about corporate "multicultural training". Andy quoted one of the trainers (or facilitators, as they like to be called), whose job it is to instill "sensitivity" about age, race, gender, disability, sexual orientation, and the kitchen sink into employees of Washington businesses: […]”

“The morning shows are now kitchen sinks, sometimes setting the network's news agenda for the day with interviews […] but always repeating bits of the previous night's newscasts, while promoting what's going to air on that night's shows.”

“How good are you at packing a car's trunk? Decide how big a challenge you want, then choose your cards to find out which of the crazy items – everything from a spare tire to the kitchen sink – you need to cram in.”

“It's been 20 years since "Drinking in L.A." and Bran Van 3000's eclectic debut Glee dropped back in February 1997, when the group's hip, kitschy, kitchen-sink esthetic and genre-defying mixtape intoxication were so en vogue that even Madonna was drawn into the bidding war.”

“Jack used to be a clever man, though I say so who shouldn't. Government has eaten him up. All his ideas and powers of conversation—he really used to be a good talker, even to his wife, in the old days—are taken from him by this—this kitchen-sink of a Government. That's the case with every man up here who is at work.”

CEFR level