fill the bill

Example: “We needed a cheap, reliable car, and this old hatchback fills the bill.”

Origin: Theater slang from the middle of the 19th century in the United States. "Bill" for a list of a show's performers traces back through "show-bill" in the early 1800s to "playbill," a placard advertising a play, current since the 1670s. A theater manager typically booked one headline act to draw an audience, then rounded out the rest of the evening's entertainment with lesser-known performers — "filling the bill" to make sure the program ran a full, satisfying length rather than ending too soon. The figurative sense, meeting all the requirements for a role or purpose, carried the same logic into everyday use: something or someone that fills the bill completes what was needed, the way a supporting act completed the night's program.