A large sailing vessel has three masts with three sails (yards) on each mast. The whole nine yards meaning a fully rigged ship. ‒ Don T. ThompsonMarch 31, 2023 It refers to the full capacity of a standard ready mix concrete truck being nine cubic yards, and so the whole nine yards...
"nine yards" might refer to — there are a multitude of theories, some quite fanciful, but none are supported by documentary evidence. In the past few years, however, some significant progress has been made to unearth early examples of the idiom, which may eventually help to smoke out ...