The phrase, the end all be all, means “the only goal, reason, or valuable part of something” and is used as a noun:
Winning is not the end all be all of playing sports; fun is more important.
As you can see, we usually say that something is NOT the end all be all. This makes sense, because most activities cannot truly be the end all be all; they have more than one goal, reason, or valuable aspect. And we often think that it is incorrect—even neurotic—to consider anything as “the end all be all.”
Sometimes we do say that something is the end all be all for a certain person:
His family was his end all be all; he would do anything for them.
Gustavo’s music is his end all be all; he cannot live without playing music.
In these sentences, we mean that “his family” or “Gustavo’s music” is the only important thing to him—seemingly his reason for living. More important than his life maybe. Although we are usually criticizing someone when we say that they have an end all be all, for a few things, such as a person’s children, being the end all be all can seem appropriate.
We can also talk about the end all be all of something. For example:
Grades should not be the end all be all of schoolwork.
In other words, grades should not be the most important thing, or the only goal of schoolwork.
This phrase comes from William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth (1605), where the character Macbeth says to himself that killing the king “might be the be-all and the end-all.” That is, it might take care of everything, and so it should be his most important goal.
More Sentence Examples of “The end all be all”
- I’m not saying it’s the end all be all for keeping your kids protected, but it’s worth a try.
- But obviously what a quarterback does publicly isn’t the end all be all of his leadership.
- Quarterback rating isn’t the end all be all, but it can be a helpful barometer.
- Taking venture money is not the end all, be all.
- It just needs to be more apparent to this editor that censorship isn’t an end all be all excuse for adding any content.
- This tool is not the be-all, end-all.
- “The magazines and the catwalks aren’t the be-all, end-all of fashion,” she said.
- No one college or university should be the be all, end all.