ALL THE WAY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does all the way mean? 

• ALL THE WAY (adverb)
  The adverb ALL THE WAY has 3 senses:

1. to the goal

2. completely

3. not stopping short of sexual intercourse

  Familiarity information: ALL THE WAY used as an adverb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ALL THE WAY (adverb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

To the goal

Synonyms:

all the way; the whole way

Context example:

she climbed the mountain all the way

Sense 2

Meaning:

Completely

Synonyms:

all the way; clear

Context example:

there were open fields clear to the horizon

Sense 3

Meaning:

Not stopping short of sexual intercourse

Context example:

she went all the way with him

 Context examples 

After we had jogged on for some little time, I asked the carrier if he was going all the way.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

It is scarce likely, he said, that Sir Claude Latour should send me all the way across seas with nought more weighty than a psalm-verse.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Spitzer stared at the planet with its infrared vision for a total of 80 hours, watching it orbit all the way around its star multiple times.

(Spitzer Maps Climate Patterns on a Super-Earth, NASA)

"Ain't got all the way in yet."

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Remarkably, the Ancient North Siberians people are more closely related to Europeans than Asians and seem to have migrated all the way from Western Eurasia soon after the divergence between Europeans and Asians.

(DNA from 31,000-year-old milk teeth leads to discovery of new group of ancient Siberians, University of Cambridge)

All the way do they take him down the river to the end, where it runs into a lake which is larger than all the land and large as the sky.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

By removing a top predator, their prey can burgeon and compromise the food chain all the way down, affecting seafood consumed by people, the study says.

(New way to save endangered sharks – and our seafood, SciDev.Net)

They laughed and chatted all the way home, and little Baptiste, up behind, thought that monsieur and madamoiselle were in charming spirits.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Cassini used magnetic field data, too, but earlier estimates ranged from 10:36 all the way to 10:48.

(Scientists Finally Know What Time It Is on Saturn, NASA)

Every boat in the harbour seemed to be there, and the coffin was carried by captains all the way from Tate Hill Pier up to the churchyard.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)