Definition of "thoroughgoing"

It must be reiterated, as, for the purpose of these Memoranda, the deep lesson of History and Time, that all else in the contributions of a nation or age, through its politics, materials, heroic personalities, military eclat, &c., remains crude, and defers, in any close and thorough-going estimate, until vitalized by national, original archetypes in literature.

1871, Walt Whitman, Democratic Vistas‎, New York: J.S. Redfield, page 50

I am myself a thoroughgoing individualist, writing for those who are, like myself, irrevocably committed to the modern experiment.

1927, T. S. Eliot, “The Humanism of Irving Babbitt”, in Selected Essays, New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, published 1964, page 425

Mr. Prayter was a thorough-going cleric in the way of eating. He ate till there was nothing left.

1938, Xavier Herbert, chapter XI, in Capricornia‎, New York: D. Appleton-Century, published 1943, page 182

After six months of preparation, Lawyer Joseph Oteri began in September the most thoroughgoing legal attack on antimarijuana laws ever made.

1967, Time, "Marijuana is Still Illegal," 29 December, 1967