whole megillah

Idioms and Phrases

Also, whole schmeer . Everything, every aspect or element, as in The accountant went through the whole megillah all over again , or Her divorce lawyer took him for the house, the car, the whole schmeer . The first term alludes to the Megillah , five books of the Bible read on certain Jewish feast days and considered by some to be very long and tedious. Schmeer is Yiddish for “smear” or “smudge.” [ Slang ; second half of 1900s]