Dictionary

kitchen-sinky en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

From kitchen sink + -y. Sense 1 alludes to the phrase everything but the kitchen sink, sense 2 to the phrase kitchen sink realism.

Meanings

1. (informal) Encompassing an excessively broad range of features or elements, often leading to diminished efficiency or reduced practical utility.
   • Don't buy a [back]pack with loads of extra kitchen sinky bits unless you'll be using them frequently. 1999 November 5, Peter Clinch, “Re: Looking For a Backpack”, in rec.backcountry (Usenet):
   • It is not kitchen-sinky if we understand a kitchen-sink not simply [as] a language very loaded with various grammatical and phonological features but only a language where they are only for their own sake and don't make a functional system together. 2007, John Quijada, "Re: Aesthetics", Conlang Mailing list archives, 23 October 2007
   • I'm sure there are subjects I could have covered, but I didn't want it to get too kitchen-sinky. 2011, Nancy Deville, Healthy, Sexy, Happy: A Thrilling Journey to the Ultimate You, Greenleaf Book Group, published 2011, →ISBN:
   • "How to Read a Word" includes quite a bit of related material, including a slightly kitchen-sinky collection of "word stories," investigating words such as wordhoard, skulduggery, and yes, lexicographer; […] 2011 March 20, Erin McKean, “DIY dictionary”, in Boston Globe:
2. Of or pertaining to kitchen sink realism; depicting social realities in an unstylized and direct manner.
   • Not that Warner's is merely a domesticated version of Euripides. It stars, after all, that least kitchen-sinky of actors. 2001 February 4, Susannah Clapp, “Mother knows best”, in The Guardian:
   • "He takes this seedy little story of seedy little people in seedy little rooms, and he makes it big and operatic and grandiose. I love that. It could have all been documentary-like or a bit kitchen sinky, and all rough and tough. […] 2011 February 7, Gina Picallo, “Helen Mirren interview”, in The Telegraph:
   • "Here was a kid who was imagining things and inventing things and none of this was odd to her, mum and dad being junkies. I didn't want to comment; I just present the story. And I didn't want to be too kitchen-sinky, because it's a heightened reality." 2007 April 29, Stephanie Bunbury, “Tide and emotions”, in The Age:

Forms

Relateds

feature creep