caboodle, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

caboodle n.

also capoodle

1. a large mixed-up collection of objects or people; usu. in phr. below.

1872		Schele De Vere Americanisms 588: Caboodle, probably an enlargement of the word boodle, means, like the latter, crowd.
1894		St Paul Daily Globe (Minn.) 14 Jan. 8/5: An’ if they don’t, by dern! We’ll make this old republic bleed, / An’ fire the kerboodle from the capital an’ state.
1901		W.S. Walker In the Blood 112: This ’ere new caboodle takes the cake.
1905		J.W. Carr ‘Words from Northwest Arkansas’ in DN III:i 72: caboodle, capoodle, n. All of a number. ‘I’ll whip the whole caboodle of you.’.
1926		Wood & Goddard Dict. Amer. Sl.
1928		J. Agate Gemel in London 13: The entire caboodle of glees, part-songs, folk-songs.
1932		Western Gaz. 22 Jan. 2/7: Mr Lansbury spoke of the Government as ‘a caboodle of doctors all disagreeing’.
1960		(con. c.1928) D. Holman-Hunt My Grandmothers and I (1987) 163: Is this your caboodle in the hall?
1989		S. Armitage ‘Ivory’ in Zoom 74: No more mularkey, no baloney [...] all that caboodle / is niet dobra.

2. (US black) a small handheld container, e.g. for make-up.

2019

C.D. Rosales Word Is Bone [ebook] ‘All my makeup’s there. My fucking caboodle’s there, Junie’.

In phrases

whole caboodle (n.) (also whole cadaboodle, ...carboodle, …kaboodle, …kaboodlum, kerboodle)

(orig. US) the lot, everything there is.

c.1848		Ohio State Journal n.p.: The whole caboodle will act upon the recommendation of the Ohio Sun [B].
1858		N.O. Picayune 23 Feb. n.p.: The whole caboodle came out and fell upon me, till I was as soft as a squash, and then they took me up for fighting.
1864		Moulton letter in Drickamer Fort Lyon to Harper’s Ferry (1987) 167: The whole cadaboodle of gray-backs.
c.1865		‘Artemus Ward’ ‘Rough Beginning Of The Honeymoon’ 🌐 Jest you two wimin put on your duds and [...] bring back the old man and woman, and your grandfather, who is nigh on to a hundred; bring ’em all here, and i’ll marry the whole d---d caboodle of ’em.
1873		M. Holley My Opinions and Betsy Bobbet’ s 351: I walked up as collected-looking as if I owned the whole caboodle of them.
1882		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 29 Apr. 3/3: [T]he whole ‘caboodle’ of them are in the same leaky financial boat.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 14 Mar. 7/4: We simply squirt a bucket or two of the cheapest Genoa chemicals into each Arab’s veins, and presto! the whole carboodle of the Mahdi’s men are turned into blocks of white sandstone.
1889		St Paul Daily Globe (Minn.) 23 Feb. 4/5: Sam [...] could buy up the whole kerboodle.
1892		‘The Patriotic’ in ‘F. Anstey’ Mr Punch’s Model Music Hall 17: They’ll cut down the whole caboodle – On the Cheap!
1894		Truth (Sydney) Feb. 1/6: It is high time that the whole caboodle of Dukes, Marquises, Earls and Viscounts [...] were sent elsewhere.
1896		S.F. Call 8 Mar. 15/3: I wouldn’t give a hundred dollars for the hull kerboodle.
1898		Phoenix (AZ) Republican 19 July 7/3: Government ought to round up the whole caboodle of ’em and chloroform ’em, that’s what.
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 6 Oct. 14/2: [T]he subordinate darted round the office, gathered up sealing wax, printed forms, date-stamps and sundries, crammed them into a candle-box and kicked the whole caboodle energetically out of doors and half-way across a paddock with a howl of hysterical fury.
1901		Red Cloud Chief (Webster Co., NE) 1 Feb. 8/2: Why not mix the whole darned kerboodle medicine, powder, pills and capsules, in one of the jugs.
1910		O. Johnson Varmint 71: This is the best thing in the whole caboodle.
1917		Wkly Tribune & Cape Co. Herald (Cape Girardeau, MO) 27 Apr. 6/6: The whole kerboodle will march right down to the river.
1922		S. Lewis Babbitt (1974) 150: The fastest-growing partner of the whole caboodle.
1926		in J.F. Dobie Rainbow in Morning 92: The whole kaboodlum.
1937		W.M. Raine Cool Customer 214: If they are in El Paso they will get together soon. We want to bag the whole caboodle.
1942		E. Cross Tailor and Ansty 52: Didn’t I pay my money and see the whole bloody caboodle?
1947		F. Brown Fabulous Clipjoint (1949) 135: And taking the whole kaboodle of you to the circus.
1953		T.A.G. Hungerford Riverslake 104: Poles, Hungarians, Czechs, the whole damned caboodle.
1955		‘Blackie’ Audett Rap Sheet 150: The Swiss dog-trainers piled in, too. So out come the whole kaboodle, dogs and all.
1965		L. Haylen Big Red 58: He laughed at the Old Woman, at Paddy, at Felix, at the whole caboodle.
1976		C. Dexter Last Seen Wearing in The Second Inspector Morse Omnibus (1994) 450: I think Baines knows a hell of a lot more about the whole caboodle than anybody.
1999		Indep. Rev. 30 Sept. 8: Worked that time, paid stamps. / The whole kaboodle.
1999		K. Sampson Powder 50: The Grams’ recording sessions, video clips, wages, clothes, tour shortfall — the whole caboodle.
2000		Observer Rev. 7 May 14: We have the whole caboodle.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 174: [F]alse accounting, fingers in the till, phantom invoices, fictitious employees, the whole caboodle.