end-to-end alternatives

Question

I just received an email that included the phrase

soup-to-nuts

meaning "end-to-end." Are there any other alternatives to this? eg cradle-to-grave? I want to include some in the reply email.

Answer 1

If you want to include a similar phrase in your reply email just for fun, you can use the following Latin phrase:

ab ovo usque ad mala

It's basically the same thing as soup-to-nuts, except that it literally translates to "from the egg to the apples". This was the typical main meal in ancient Rome, where the phrase was created.

Answer 2

How about from A to Z?

Answer 3

From alpha to omega

Answer 4

You could use:

from start to finish

Answer 5

I've encountered "Womb to Tomb".

Answer 6

I guess this one could be added to the list:

From stem to stern.

Answer 7

Bust (as in breastfeeding) to dust!

Answer 8

from top to bottom:

  the Cambridge English Dictionary:

completely:   They cleaned the house from top to bottom.

  The Oxford English Dictionaries and Macmillan Dictionary give very similar definitions.

from head to toe:

  the Cambridge English Dictionary:

completely:   She was dressed in red from head to toe.

  Merriam-Webster and Macmillan Dictionary give very similar definitions.

If you’re willing to go obscure, you could use cap–a–pie or cap–à–pie, which, according to Merriam-Webster, is derived from Middle French (de) cap a pé for “from head to foot”, and rhymes with such words as “day,” “ray” and “way”.  Shakespeare used a couple of variations of this:

Ham I.ii.200

[Horatio to Hamlet, _{of the Ghost}]  a figure like your father, / Armed at point exactly, cap-a-pe
[reading of F Cap a Pe; Q1, Q2 Capapea]

WT IV.iv.731

[Autolycus to Shepherd] I am courtier cap-a-pie

       ^{— from Shakespeare's Words | Glossary, http://www.shakespeareswords.com/Glossary.aspx}

Merriam-Webster lists capape as an obsolete variant of cap-a-pie.