that's all she wrote
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English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Unknown; circa 1940s; thought to be a reference to Dear John letters. Ernest Tubb recorded a song titled "That's All She Wrote" (sheet music published in 1942), but earlier printed references exist (e.g. The Brownsville Herald, June 1935).
Pronunciation
[edit]Audio (General Australian): (file)
Phrase
[edit]- (idiomatic, originally US) Indicating an abrupt termination of a project, or of one’s hopes or plans.
- 1951, Jackie Brenston, “My Real Gone Rocket”:
- If you see a long yellow streak of all fine smoke / That’s my rocket pulling out, that’s all she wrote / […]
- 1951, Hank Williams, “Dear John”:
- There was a note upon my door... I won’t be back no more / That’s all she wrote, "Dear John".
- 1963, Johnny Cash, “Jackson”:
- […] Goodbye — that’s all she wrote.
- 1980, Bruce Springsteen, “The River”:
- Then I got Mary pregnant and man that was all she wrote / And for my nineteenth birthday I got a union card and a wedding coat
- 1987, Deep Purple, “Black And White”:
- Inside information taken down note by note / A silent footstep that's all she wrote
- 1990, Firehouse, “All She Wrote”:
- Bye bye, baby, bye-bye, she said in a letter / And that was all she wrote
- 2004, Gaither Vocal Band, “I Catch 'Em, God Cleans 'Em”:
- He said a prayer, and that was all she wrote
- 2004, Michael Graves, A+ Guide to PC Hardware Maintenance & Repair, page 525:
- I get five short beeps when the machine starts to boot, and then that's all she wrote […]
- 2016 February 5, Wesley Schultz and Jeremy Fraites, “Ophelia”, in Cleopatra[1], performed by The Lumineers:
- I, I, got a little paycheck / You got big plans and you gotta move / And I don't feel nothing at all / And you can't feel nothing small / "Honey, I love you", that's all she wrote