kitchen sink

¹

noun

1. the final item imaginable on any extensive list of usually disparate items.

   He packed everything for his trip except the kitchen sink.

kitchen-sink

²

[kich-uhn-singk]

adjective

1. marked by an indiscriminate and omnivorous use of elements.

   a kitchen-sink approach to moviemaking.

kitchen sink

noun

1. a sink in a kitchen for washing dishes, vegetables, etc

2. everything that can be conceived of

3. (modifier) denoting a type of drama or painting of the 1950s depicting the sordid aspects of domestic reality

Word History and Origins

Origin of kitchen sink¹

1870–75, for literal sense

Origin of kitchen sink²

First recorded in 1940–45

Example Sentences

One morning last year, John Gladwin opened the cupboard under his kitchen sink and discovered a bag of soil he'd been storing there was torn to shreds.

From BBC

Jake Haro said he was giving the baby girl a bath in a kitchen sink and accidentally dropped her but a doctor’s report said the girl’s injuries did not fit that narrative.

From Los Angeles Times

Jake Haro told police that he accidentally dropped the baby into a center divider in their kitchen sink while giving her a bath, but the doctor said the injuries did not fit that narrative.

From Los Angeles Times

And, a year later, he starred as a bank-robber-with-a-soft-heart in Ken Loach's kitchen sink drama, Poor Cow.

From BBC

No one is writing social media sonnets about eating a yellow squash over the kitchen sink while wearing their ex’s oversized T-shirt, still scented with a perfume they stopped wearing last fall.

From Salon