all-embracing
adjEtymology From all + embracing.
1
Having a broad scope; of universal application.
- The trouble today is that few such causes of delay are taken up with the people concerned; "there is a war on" provides the usual all-embracing excuse.1945 September and October, Cecil J. Allen, “British Locomotive Practice and Performance”, in Railway Magazine, page 269:
- Another new station was planned—a bigger, vaster, all-embracing station, one that would last for all time.1958 September 23, C. Alan Cook, “Johannesburg's Fourth Station”, in Railway Magazine, pages 640-641:
1 more example
- [...] at each station the train times are not shown in one all-embracing chronological list, but in two separate sheets, one with a conspicuous band of yellow detailing westbound departures and the other with a similar band of blue the eastbound trains.1960 December, “The Glasgow Suburban Electrification is opened”, in Trains Illustrated, page 714:
- Synonyms
- exhaustive, thorough