ab ovo
Americanadverb
Etymology
Origin of ab ovo
Literally, “from the egg”
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Again, of the Paradise Lost: ‘It has the totality of the poem as distinguished from the ab ovo birth and parentage or straight line of history.’
From English Critical Essays Nineteenth Century by Jones, Edmund David
Instead of being ab ovo ad malum, it was ab malo ad ovum.
From The Castaways by Pearse, Lolbran
The Romans began their noonday meal with eggs, and ended with a dessert; ab ovo ad malum.
From The Castaways by Pearse, Lolbran
Moreover, we have the advantage of tracing the growth of the iron manufacture ab ovo, for, as we have seen, before the industrial revolution it played a most insignificant part in English commerce.
From The Evolution of Modern Capitalism A Study of Machine Production by Hobson, J. A. (John Atkinson)
By common consent the golden age of both was at the beginning, ab ovo.
From The Child and Childhood in Folk-Thought Studies of the Activities and Influences of the Child Among Primitive Peoples, Their Analogues and Survivals in the Civilization of To-Day by Chamberlain, Alexander F.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.