The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 2 plus 4 plus 4 plus 4 letter word UP HILL DOWN DALE
I've seen this crossword clue in Financial Times
U
P
H
I
L
L
D
O
W
N
D
A
L
E
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "all over the place" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case all over the place = up hill down dale.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.