all over the shop

English

Prepositional phrase

all over the shop

1. (UK, Australia, informal) All over the place.

   Synonyms: all over the ballpark, all over the gaff, all over the lot, all over the show

   • 1823, Edmund Burke, “Chronicle, March 1822”, in The Annual Register, or a view of the history, politics, and literature, of the year 1822‎^[1], volume 64, page 52:

     While witness was in the shop, a gentleman came running in, and retched all over the shop. He cried out to the boy, "What have you given me here?"

   • 2019 September 26, “Dominic Cummings: delivering Brexit only way to solve abuse of MPs”, in The Guardian‎^[2], →ISSN:

     When Cummings was asked if he blamed MPs for the abuse, he replied: “The MPs said we will have a referendum, we will respect the result and then they spent three years swerving all over the shop.