What’s “all the show” mean?

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The idiom “throughout the show” means that everything referred to is scattered everywhere, and is in general a mess. The phrase is related to many other idioms commonly used in British and American English, such as “all over the shop” and “all over the ballpark”, which have the same meaning. The phrase derives from the even older saying, “everywhere”, dating back to the 19th century.

Idioms are short phrases that cannot be defined by deconstructing their literal meaning. A common idiom used in the English language is “get your ducks in line”. Someone uttering this phrase should not be meant to discuss how he or she is about to line up real birds. The true meaning of the phrase is that someone is paying attention to details and taking all elements into account before starting a new project. Other idioms include “beat a dead horse” and “add fuel to the fire.”

Something can be said to be “all over the show” if it is thoughtlessly scattered anywhere. This could be used to refer to anything from toys around a room to punctuation marks around a theme. A person might say “look at this – there are toys all over the show” if they were faced with a room littered with a child’s toys. Likewise, he might say “the punctuation on this assignment doesn’t make sense; there are commas all over the show” and you are still using the idiom correctly.

Unusually enough for an idiom, there are many different variations on this phrase that all have the same meaning. Someone might say “all over” like he or she says “all over the show” because the meaning is exactly the same. The original version, “all over”, is thought to date from the 19th century, but it is difficult to establish a definitive history of the idiom.

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