Singer embracing Liberal lord, everyone embraced by Count! (3,4)
I believe the answer is:
all told
'everyone embraced by count' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this defines the answer.
'singer embracing liberal lord' is the wordplay.
'singer' becomes 'alto' (alto is a kind of singer).
'embracing' indicates putting letters inside.
'liberal' becomes 'l' (abbreviation).
'lord' becomes 'ld' (abbreviation for the aristocratic title).
'alto' placed around 'l' is 'allto'.
'allto'+'ld'='ALL TOLD'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for all told that I've seen before include "Altogether" , "Including everything" , "Taking everything into account" , "With everything or everyone taken into account" , "To summarise" .)