all-purpose
Americanadjective
adjective
Etymology
Origin of all-purpose
First recorded in 1925–30
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.
Then I come back in with a second pass: an all-purpose spray.
From Salon ● May 5, 2026
He also caught a touchdown pass in the game while accumulating 232 all-purpose yards.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 20, 2026
The first is that nobody should call our food system “broken,” the all-purpose label that armchair revolutionaries slap on any aspect of the messy human condition that doesn’t measure up.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 17, 2026
The current 15 authorities and two levels of local government are due to be abolished and replaced with between three and five all-purpose unitary councils.
From BBC ● Mar. 20, 2026
And yet here Anatole speaks French, English, Kikongo and whatever all he first started out with, plus knowing enough to be the one all-purpose schoolteacher.
From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver
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.
