you-all

American

[yoo-awl, yawl, yoo-awl] / juˈɔl, jɔl, ˈjuˌɔl /

pronoun

Chiefly South Midland and Southern U.S.

you (used in direct address to two or more people).

You-all come back now, hear?
Tell your mother it's time you-all came to visit us.

you-all British

pronoun

a US, esp Southern, word for you, used esp when addressing more than one person

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Usage

See you, y'all.

Etymology

Origin of you-all

An Americanism dating back to 1815–25; you ( def. ) + all ( def. )

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.

See Examples For:

you-all

"I'll have to tell you-all good-by," he concluded.

From Time Magazine Archive

Hominy grits, served with eggs at breakfast or within any other meal are a guarantor of beauty, nutrition and happy days, you-all.

From Time Magazine Archive

Boss man, when's you-all gonna get those fellows away?''

From Time Magazine Archive

Together, Fields and Crosby add certain novel elements to Mississippi's "you-all," hoop skirt & julep plot as taken from a Booth Tarkington play.

From Time Magazine Archive

“I’ll do you-all like the farmer did the potato,” the boy would say.

From "Black Boy" by Richard Wright

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023