magilla

plural magillas · alternative megillah

1. Something large or elaborate.

   No, I didn't wear them. I got dressed up. Pantyhose, makeup, the whole magilla.

   2001, Fern Michaels, Charming Lily

   4 more examples

   Before a Kohen duchans he's gotta have his hands washed by one of the Levites, it's a whole magilla, what do I know?

   2002, Howard Riell, The Merciful Rebuke Satan, page 204

   I love your letters. They always bring me joy. Even the short ones. The magillas make me euphoric.

   2009, Margo Howard, Ann Landers in Her Own Words: Personal Letters to Her Daughter

   "Dream House" is the full magilla, with imaginary images, sanity questions, peek-a-boo startles and the usual are-they-real-or-not? characters.

   2011 September 30, Joe Neumaier, “'Dream House' review: Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz thriller is just an embarrassing nightmare”, in New York Daily News

   I'm good at it, I get paid fairly well for it, and some day I'm going to be one of the people in charge of the whole magilla.

   2014, Jim Menick, Lingo

2. A big fuss or messy situation.

   He didn't deserve this end and I am to blame for the whole magilla.

   2010, K. A. Minton, By Their Fruits, page 115

   4 more examples

   Now after this magilla, please be ashamed of yourself and sit down & write a nice long letter

   20th century, New York Supreme Court Case on Appeal, page 1051

   Because I got into one of my magillas over what in hell to write you, Paul who thought I was crazy said that maybe he would apply for it instead but Gordon thought he was too successful.

   1985, Jane Auer Bowles, Millicent Dillon, Out in the World: Selected Letters of Jane Bowles, 1935-1970

   You can’t name it. It’s too big or evil or outside your experience. It’s also shit because it’s garbage, it’s waste material. But I’m making a whole big megillah out of this. What I really want to get at is the ordinary thing, the ordinary life behind the thing.

   1997, Don DeLillo, Underworld

   The actor told Esquire about his epic Christmas parties: "It's a big magilla to get an ice luge, but if you do, you can pour vodka into it and it chills it on the way down.

   2016 September 21, Lauren O'Callaghan, “8 times Bill Murray proved he's the best human being in the world”, in Games Radar

3. An epitome; an acme; an exemplar.

   “It's not just one more thing, this is the big magilla,” Keena said.

   2012 April 27, Linda Sickler, “Obama names Juliette Gordon Low recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom”, in Savannah Morning News

   2 more examples

   Beyond Baroque, she says, “was the big magilla” to which they all aspired.

   2018 November 13, Bliss Bowen, “This weekend’s Southern California Poetry Festival caps Beyond Baroque’s 50th anniversary celebration and exalts poetry in its many forms”, in The Argonaut

   But this Hawthorne thing is the big magilla. It will include everything a Las Vegas casino has, all that and table games.

   2019 October 27, Thomas Chambers, “TrackNotes: Casino Crazy & Whitney Day”, in The Beachwood Reporter

4. Someone big and brutish; a gorilla.

   Big, stupid magillas with guns.

   2003, Bob Truluck, Saw Red: A Mystery, page 107

   1 more example

   Those of us in the talk radio dodge can't help but make note of Rush Limbaugh, the thousand-pound magilla in our particular jungle.

   2011 May 25, Michael Conniff, “Con Games: Rush Limbaugh, Elitist”, in Huffington Post