| An English expression dating back to the early nineteenth century meaning, basically, everything and possibly first finding its way into our vernacular from a letter of Sir Walter Scott's in 1817: "She wants stock, lock, and barrel, to put her into repair".
The phrase originates from the three parts that comprised early firearms, the lock being the firing mechanism (so named due to its resemblance to door locks of that period), the stock being the wooden handle and the barrel being, well, the barrel. Without any other parts outside these three ingredients, 'lock, stock and barrel' became synonymous with 'the whole lot'.
"I'm going to be the chirpy cockney chappy, talking about football and the seventies and I'll paper over the fact that I'm a mercenary little git with a thin veneer of self-parody. Then I'll move into TV and join the queue of cockney types currently ripping off David Letterman's chat show format lock, stock and barrel!"
- Dazzy Fatso, The Simon Salad-Cream Story, Viz #74
source:
http://www.quinion.com/words/
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