单词 | catch-all |
释义 | catch-alln.adj. A. n. 1. Originally and chiefly U.S. An area or receptacle in which miscellaneous items are stored; (also) a container designed for holding odds and ends (now rare). ΘΚΠ society > occupation and work > equipment > receptacle or container > [noun] > for general variety of things catch-all1827 1827 New-Eng. Galaxy (Boston) 8 June He has a sort of hollow scooped out, near his barn, which he calls ‘the catch-all’, and into which, straw, weeds, ashes,..and whatever else may be converted into manure, are constantly thrown. 1868 Cultivator & Country Gentleman 15 Oct. 266/2 In that corner is a catch-all, for all father's papers. It is three-corned in shape, manufactured from paste-board, and covered with shells. 1888 London Reader 28 Jan. 336/3 A match-box or a catch-all, or brown-stone jug is..made into something pretty by means of a little paint. 1923 L. J. Vance Baroque xiv. 86 The tenement yard was a simple black hole, for generations a common catch-all. 1945 ‘L. Lewis’ Birthday Murder vi. 86 That cupboard..has been a catchall for odds and ends for a long time. 1953 N.Y. Times 4 June 37/4 A small ‘catch-all’..is one of the Swedish items at the shop. 2006 T. Hoag Prior Bad Acts 174 The drawer was a catchall for things they used day-to-day—extra check blanks, stamps, address labels. 2. fig. a. Something which brings together or attracts a wide variety of people or diverse elements.Sometimes with negative connotations, implying an incoherent or inferior collection or group. ΚΠ 1838 Congress. Globe 16 Apr. App. 275/1 [The party includes] old Federalists,..Antimasons, and Abolitionists. They have, sir, been a kind of catch-all, or omnium gatherum. 1864 New Hampsh. Statesman 23 Sept. That catch-all of erratic genius—school teaching. 1936 Economist 3 Oct. 8/1 That extraordinary catch-all, the National Industrial Recovery Act..collects..divergent economic and social theories under the roof of a single enactment. 1961 Times 10 Feb. 17/4 History had become a ‘catch-all’ for students who found classics too difficult and science too serious. 2016 K. Lepani in A. Biersack et al. Gender Violence & Human Rights iv. 162 The job of ‘security’..is often recast by popular estimation as the generic catch-all for unskilled itinerate labourers. b. A word or phrase which is used to refer, in a non-specific way, to a range of things or different elements.Sometimes with negative connotations, implying an unwarranted generalization or lack of precision or nuance. ΘΚΠ the mind > language > linguistics > linguistic unit > word > [noun] > other specific types of word hard word1533 household word1574 magic word1581 grandam words1598 signal word1645 book worda1670 wordie1718 my whole1777 foundling1827–38 keyword1827 Mesopotamia1827 thought-word1844 word-symbol1852 nursery word1853 pivot word1865 rattler1865 object word1876 pillow word1877 nonce-word1884 non-word1893 fossil1901 blessed word1910 bogy-word1919 catch-all1922 pseudo-word1929 false friend1931 plus word1939 descriptor1946 meta-word1952 discourse marker1967 shrub2008 1922 Factory Feb. 176/1 Business organizations have been using ‘industrial relations’..and similar terms as a handy catch-all for any miscellaneous charges which could not be put anywhere else. 1956 Rev. Metaphysics 10 664 His use of ‘repression’ as a catch-all to cover suppression, sublimation, repression proper, and restraint works to obscure the..distinctions. 1975 Economist 28 June 59/1 The phrase ‘law and order’—introduced as an emotional catch-all to the political vocabulary of the 1960s. 2008 H. Hitchings Secret Life of Words 348 The designation ‘Celts’..is a rather lazy catch-all for the peoples who lived in Britain and Gaul before the rise of the Roman Empire. ΘΚΠ society > occupation and work > equipment > oil and natural gas recovery equipment > [noun] > clearing device scratcher1877 torpedo1877 catch-alla1884 go-devil1885 a1884 E. H. Knight Pract. Dict. Mech. Suppl. Catch-all, a tool for withdrawing from drilled wells broken tools or bars which have fallen in. 1895 H. S. Osborn Pract. Man. Minerals, Mines & Mining (ed. 2) 348 Valve sockets or ‘catch-alls’ are to catch the rods, when by accident they become disconnected. 1895 H. S. Osborn Pract. Man. Minerals, Mines & Mining (ed. 2) 348 The ‘catch-all’ for hauling pipe has a dog, a little longer than the calibre of the pipe, hinged to the main stem. B. adj. (attributive). 1. a. Composed of miscellaneous elements; appealing to a wide variety of people; all-inclusive; all-embracing. ΚΠ 1841 New-Eng. Weekly Rev. 17 Apr. ‘The Life of General Andrew Jackson’..was a mere catch-all pamphlet, designed for influence among the lower orders of society. 1877 Milwaukee (Wisconsin) Daily Sentinel 19 Nov. 4/2 Mr. Parker is urged as a catch-all candidate because he is a hybrid in politics—a Republican, an active Greenbacker, and a Democrat.., all at once. 1910 Congress. Rec. 45 5796/1 A catch-all bill contains a lot of items that have no relationship to each other. 2003 R. J. Evans Coming of Third Reich (2004) iv. 264 The Nazi Party had established itself..as a catch-all party of social protest, appealing to a greater or lesser degree to virtually every social group. b. Of a word or phrase: that refers, in a non-specific way, to a range of things or different elements.Sometimes with negative connotations, implying an unwarranted generalization or lack of precision or nuance. ΚΠ 1883 Congress. Rec. 1 Feb. 1936/2 Just a catch-all phrase. All the essential oils which we could think of are specially enumerated; and this phrase is to embrace all the others. 1943 Amer. Econ. Rev. 33 869 The term progressive is used..as a catch-all designation to cover the classification of unions..whose attitudes range from New Deal reform to socialist and communist ideology. 1957 N. Frye Anat. Crit. 304 The word novel..has since expanded into a catchall term which can be applied to practically any prose book that is not ‘on’ something. 2008 F. A. O. Schwarz & A. Z. Huq Unchecked & Unbalanced i. ii. 25 The ‘New Left’, a vague catch-all phrase that covered emerging protest groups. 2. Originally and chiefly U.S. Designating a receptacle or storage area for holding miscellaneous items or odds and ends. ΚΠ 1873 Congregationalist (Boston, Mass.) 23 Jan. 4/4 Sensible people who get these circulars, put them in the catch-all basket. 1890 T. F. Edmands 1st Corps Cadets Standing Orders (Mass. Volunteer Militia) 89 Nothing will be thrown upon the floor of the tent... The catch-all box must receive all rubbish. 1909 L. M. Montgomery Anne of Avonlea xvi. 180 She even cleaned out the ‘catch-all’ closet under the stairs. 2009 Times of India 7 Feb. (Property section) 6/4 A catch-all area, maybe recessed into the drawer area, for all kinds of odds and ends. 2018 R. M. Smith Hello Color i. 35 To help you establish a routine so you can find things easily, make yourself a catch-all tray. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2018; most recently modified version published online December 2021). < n.adj.1827 |
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