Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A situation, organization, contrivance, or set of facts or things.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A shanty; place; “concern”: as, who lives in this shebang ? he threatened to clean out the whole shebang.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun Slang, U.S. A jocosely depreciative name for a dwelling or shop; a primitive dwelling; a shanty.
- noun informal The structure of an object, process, organization, or anything viewed as complicated; -- used primarily in the phrase the whole
shebang . - noun (computers) The character sequence #!, which frequently begins shell scripts in a Unix system.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Any matter of present concern; thing; or business.
- noun archaic A
lean-to or temporaryshelter . - noun computing The
character string "#!" used at the beginning of acomputer file to indicate whichinterpreter can process thecommands in the file, chiefly used inUnix and relatedoperating systems .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun an entire system; used in the phrase `the whole shebang'
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Again, in my world, a higher chance of winning the whole shebang is what equals “better”.
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Again, in my world, a higher chance of winning the whole shebang is what equals “better”.
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Overseeing the whole shebang is Big Chief Random Chaos, possibly not the most suitable candidate for a position requiring organisational skills, but the in-house hosts will be on hand to mop up any spillages.
Clubs picks of the week Patric Baird 2010
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Instead of working all flowers and candy, however, the whole shebang is lost with over 4000 pointless US dead and hundreds of thousands pointlessly dead Iraqis and Afghanis.
Unstoppable, Incredible, Impeccable, It’s It’s It’s The Unit | ATTACKERMAN 2008
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The whole shebang is directed by Tim Russ (Tuvok from Voyager), who also recreates his role in the film as well.
News: Star Trek: Of Gods And Men Postponed | Fan Cinema Today 2007
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But, on the subject of Kate Thornton, does anyone else get the feeling that this whole 'Kate Sacked From X Factor' shebang is just a lazy publicity-grabber, the same as all the judge-fights were on the last couple of X Factor seasons?
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And the whole shebang is controlled by a special secret control room housed in a giant statue!
Boing Boing: November 26, 2006 - December 2, 2006 Archives 2006
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So I won't dismiss Palahniuk's new book -- a "novel" consisting of 23 "short stories" linked by "poems," a thin "narrative," and the conceit that this whole shebang is the work of the flesh - and fame-starved prisoners at a ghoulish writers 'colony -- as mere crap.
May 2005 2005
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So I won't dismiss Palahniuk's new book -- a "novel" consisting of 23 "short stories" linked by "poems," a thin "narrative," and the conceit that this whole shebang is the work of the flesh - and fame-starved prisoners at a ghoulish writers 'colony -- as mere crap.
He Said Smeared 2005
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I've come to accept that the delegates are props, the platforms are propaganda and the whole shebang is essentially a political infomercial that just goes on and on and on.
Oh, get a room! 2004
oroboros commented on the word shebang
Does "shebang" cause scatterbrain?
January 4, 2007
factoryjoe commented on the word shebang
"And here's the kicker of this whole shebang." --Information Travels Faster, Death Cab for Cutie
March 20, 2008
eddweirdo commented on the word shebang
During the American Civil War, a shebang,perhaps,meant (2 halves of) an army pup tent. The meaning of hut or shed has been attributed (in some circles) as coming from the prisoners of Camp Ford,Texas refering to the makeshift hovels they lived in.
From EtymologyOnline: 1862, "hut, shed, shelter," perhaps an alteration of shebeen (q.v.). Phrase the whole shebang first recorded 1869, but relation to the earlier use of the word is obscure. Either or both senses may also be mangled pronunciations of Fr. char-à-banc, a bus-like wagon with many seats.
September 23, 2010