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megillah (muh-GIL-uh, muh-GEE-luh), pl. megillahs, megilloth - n., a scroll containing the biblical book of Esther, traditionally read in synagogues during the festival of Purim; a scroll of any of the five biblical books of Esther, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Ruth, or Lamentations; (slang) a tediously detailed or embroidered account, everything involved in what is under consideration.
In that last sense, often in the phrase "the whole megillah" with the same meaning of "the whole ball of wax." In English use outside of Jewish religious contexts, the playful slang senses predominate. From Yiddish megile, which also has the slang senses, from Hebrew mĕgillāh, which doesn't but rather only the literal meaning scroll.
And yes, I have been subjected to megillahs by loquacious older in-laws.
---L.
In that last sense, often in the phrase "the whole megillah" with the same meaning of "the whole ball of wax." In English use outside of Jewish religious contexts, the playful slang senses predominate. From Yiddish megile, which also has the slang senses, from Hebrew mĕgillāh, which doesn't but rather only the literal meaning scroll.
And yes, I have been subjected to megillahs by loquacious older in-laws.
---L.
