[f. END v.1 + ALL.] That which ‘ends all’ (see quot. 1876). Now only dial. exc. in Shakespearean phrase, The be-all and the end-all. (See BE-ALL.)
1605. Shaks., Macb., I. vii. 5. That but this blow Might be the be all, and the end all.
1876. Mid-Yorksh. Gloss. (E. D. S.), End-all, more freely used than customarily, and with a wider interpretation in the sense of an act of completion. Also a finishing stroke.
1883. G. Howell, in Contemp. Rev., Sept., 345. The latter aim was the be-all and end-all almost of those industrial combinations.
