I. whole 1 S1 W1 /həʊl $ hoʊl/ BrE AmE adjective
[ Word Family: noun : ↑ whole , ↑ wholesomeness ; adjective : ↑ whole , ↑ wholesome ≠ UNWHOLESOME ; adverb : ↑ wholly ]
[ Language: Old English ; Origin: hal 'healthy, unhurt, complete' ]
1 . [only before noun] all of something SYN entire :
You have your whole life ahead of you!
His whole attitude bugs me.
We ate the whole cake in about ten minutes.
The whole thing (=everything about the situation) just makes me sick.
We just sat around and watched TV the whole time (=the only thing we did was watch television) .
I don’t believe she’s telling us the whole story (=all the facts) .
It was months before the whole truth came out.
the whole school/country/village etc (=all the people in a school, country etc)
The whole town came out for the parade.
2 . whole lot informal
a) a whole lot very much:
I’m feeling a whole lot better.
I don’t cook a whole lot anymore.
b) a whole lot (of something) a large quantity or number:
We’re going to have a whole lot of problems if we don’t finish this by tomorrow.
You can find a nice house in this neighborhood, and you don’t have to spend a whole lot.
c) the whole lot especially British English all of something:
She gave me the whole lot for 20 pounds.
3 . a whole range/series/variety etc (of something) used to emphasize that there are a lot of things of a similar type:
There are a whole range of sizes to choose from.
4 . complete and not divided or broken into parts:
Place a whole onion inside the chicken.
a snake swallowing a mouse whole (=swallowing it without chewing)
5 . the whole point (of something) used to emphasize the purpose for doing something, especially when you believe this is unclear or has been forgotten:
I thought the whole point of the meeting was to decide which offer to accept.
6 . in the whole (wide) world informal an expression meaning ‘anywhere’ or ‘at all’, used to emphasize a statement:
I have the best job in the whole wide world.
7 . go the whole hog ( also go whole hog American English ) informal to do something as completely or as well as you can, without any limits:
I’m gonna go whole hog and have a live band at the barbecue.
8 . the whole nine yards American English spoken including everything that is typical of or possible in an activity, situation, set of things etc:
Our new apartment complex has a tennis court, swimming pool, playground – the whole nine yards.
—wholeness noun [uncountable]
⇨ a whole new ball game at ↑ ball game (3), ⇨ the whole shebang at ↑ shebang , ⇨ the whole shooting match at ↑ shooting match , ⇨ the whole enchilada at ↑ enchilada (3), ⇨ ↑ wholly
II. whole 2 S2 W2 BrE AmE noun
[ Word Family: noun : ↑ whole , ↑ wholesomeness ; adjective : ↑ whole , ↑ wholesome ≠ UNWHOLESOME ; adverb : ↑ wholly ]
1 . the whole of something all of something, especially something that is not a physical object:
The whole of the morning was wasted trying to find the documents.
2 . on the whole used to say that something is generally true:
On the whole, I thought the film was pretty good.
3 . as a whole used to say that all the parts of something are being considered together:
This project will be of great benefit to the region as a whole.
4 . [countable usually singular] something that consists of a number of parts, but is considered as a single unit:
Two halves make a whole.