megillah

American  

[muh-gil-uh, muh-gee-lah] / məˈgɪl ə, mə giˈlɑ /

Or megilla

noun

plural

megillahs,

plural

megilloth, megillot

1. Slang.

   1. a lengthy, detailed explanation or account.

      Just give me the facts, not the whole megillah.

   2. a lengthy and tediously complicated situation or matter.

2. (italics) a scroll, especially one containing the Book of Esther. Others are the Book of Ecclesiastes, the Song of Solomon, the Book of Ruth, and the Book of Lamentations.

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megillah British  

/ miɡiˈla, məˈɡɪlə /

noun

1. a scroll of the Book of Esther, read on the festival of Purim

2. a scroll of the Book of Ruth, Song of Songs, Lamentations, or Ecclesiastes

3. slang anything, such as a story or letter, that is too long or unduly drawn out

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Etymology

Origin of megillah

First recorded in 1910–15; from Yiddish megile, from Biblical Hebrew məgillāh “scroll, roll, volume,” from gālal “to roll”

Example Sentences

No, wait, he wants to buy the whole megillah!

From The Verge • Apr. 16, 2022

Pride’s sisters and her father testified for the prosecution, and the whole megillah has estranged Pride and Warren from the rest of their family.

From Washington Post • Aug. 17, 2015

At trial, and then in defending their victory on appeal, they went for the whole megillah: a broad ruling that marriage is a fundamental constitutional right for everyone, full stop, right now.

From Slate • Sep. 20, 2012

“It’s a big megillah, this swim,” Nyad says, back at home, shoving her two dogs off a couch in her house in the Hancock Park neighborhood of Los Angeles.

From New York Times • Dec. 1, 2011

You get to do really great work, you really get to focus on the work, and all this megillah that goes on around it is gone.

From Time Magazine Archive