kitchen sink
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˌkɪt͡ʃ(ɪ)n ˈsɪŋk/
ipa: /ˌkɪt͡ʃ(ə)n ˈsɪŋk/
rhymes: -ɪŋk
Forms: form: kitchen sinks
Etymology: The noun is derived from kitchen + sink. Sense 2.1 (“miscellaneous item or miscellany”) is probably from everything but the kitchen sink.
The adjective is derived from the noun. Sense 1 (“of or pertaining to a realist style of painting characterized by scenes of dull or untidy domestic interiors of urban working-class people”) was coined by the British art critic David Sylvester (1924–2001) in a December 1954 article entitled “The Kitchen Sink”: see the quotation.
The verb is a back-formation from kitchen-sinking (noun), which is derived from the noun.
Senses: examples: text: The kitchen sink was piled high with dirty dishes.
coordinate_terms: laundry sink
utility sink
glosses: A sink in a kitchen used for washing crockery, cutlery, utensils, food, etc., and disposing of waste.
examples: text: They threw the kitchen sink at the problem, but still couldn’t fix it.
text: The April 1994 issue of Washingtonian ran an article by my friend Andrew Ferguson about corporate "multicultural training". Andy quoted one of the trainers (or facilitators, as they like to be called), whose job it is to instill "sensitivity" about age, race, gender, disability, sexual orientation, and the kitchen sink into employees of Washington businesses: […]
ref: 1994, P[atrick] J[ake] O’Rourke, “Fashionable Worries: If Meat is Murder, are Eggs Rape?”, in All the Trouble in the World: The Lighter Side of Famine, Pestilence, Destruction and Death, London: Picador, →ISBN, section III, page 11:
text: The morning shows are now kitchen sinks, sometimes setting the network's news agenda for the day with interviews […] but always repeating bits of the previous night's newscasts, while promoting what's going to air on that night's shows.
ref: 1997 March 30, Frederic M. Biddle, “Networks’ wake-up call”, in Boston Sunday Globe (ArtsEtc. section), volume 251, number 89, Boston, Mass.: The Globe Newspaper Co., →ISSN, →OCLC, page N4, columns 4–5:
text: How good are you at packing a car's trunk? Decide how big a challenge you want, then choose your cards to find out which of the crazy items – everything from a spare tire to the kitchen sink – you need to cram in.
ref: 2007 November, LeapFrog Enterprises, “Top Toys”, in Caroline Connell, editor, Today’s Parent, volume 24, number 11, Toronto, Ont.: St. Joseph Communications, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 75:
text: It's been 20 years since "Drinking in L.A." and Bran Van 3000's eclectic debut Glee dropped back in February 1997, when the group's hip, kitschy, kitchen-sink esthetic and genre-defying mixtape intoxication were so en vogue that even Madonna was drawn into the bidding war.
ref: 2017 January 31, Nick Patch, “The story of ‘Drinking in L.A.,’ 20 years later”, in Toronto Star, Toronto, Ont.: Toronto Star Newspapers, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 29 Jan 2023:
glosses: A miscellaneous item or a miscellany, especially exemplifying an indiscriminate profusion.
glosses: In chained or tied to the kitchen sink, etc.: domestic chores or housework, especially when regarded as menial and tedious.
examples: text: Jack used to be a clever man, though I say so who shouldn't. Government has eaten him up. All his ideas and powers of conversation—he really used to be a good talker, even to his wife, in the old days—are taken from him by this—this kitchen-sink of a Government. That's the case with every man up here who is at work.
ref: [1889 January], Rudyard Kipling, “The Education of Otis Yeere. I. Showing How the Great Idea was Born.”, in Under the Deodars (A. H. Wheeler & Co.’s Indian Railway Library; no. 4), Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh: A[rthur] H[enry] Wheeler & Co.; London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, […], →OCLC, page 10:
glosses: A thing regarded as defiled due to corruption, immorality, etc.
Derived terms: word: everything but the kitchen sink
word: kitchen-sinkery
word: kitchen-sinking
word: kitchen sink regression
word: kitchen-sinky