catchall

noun, often attributive catch·all \ ˈkach-ˌȯl , ˈkech- \

|Updated on: 8 Jul 2018

Examples: catchall in a Sentence

: something that holds or includes odds and ends or a wide variety of things

a catchall tray

dyspepsia is a catchall term for stomach discomfort

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Examples of catchall in a Sentence

They used the drawer as a catchall for kitchen items.
“The arts” is a catchall for a variety of activities from painting to music.

Recent Examples of catchall from the Web

Administrative leave is the government’s catchall term for giving employees paid time off without charge to vacation time or another regular form of leave.

— eric yoder, Washington Post, "Federal government open Tuesday, but agencies encouraged to grant employees time off to view Capitals parade," 11 June 2018
Many of her pieces were intricately carved hearts that could be used as soap dishes, trivets or small catchalls for jewelry.

— ruth sowby rands, latimes.com, "On the Town: College’s ceramics sale raises funds for equipment," 4 June 2018
What this means to you: Right now, Intel’s 8th-generation Core designation seems more like a catchall than anything else, with both the 14nm++ and 10nm Core chips all falling into it.

— mark hachman, PCWorld, "Intel finally reveals its first 10nm Cannon Lake chip: A Core i3 for notebooks," 16 May 2018
DeFranco says that the app is based around a hyper-focused community, rather than acting as a catchall social platform like Twitter.

— megan farokhmanesh, The Verge, "One of YouTube’s biggest creators just launched a video-based app off-platform," 9 May 2018
Prisons are a catchall for people who are born screwed and go on to screw up.

— eve macsweeney, Vogue, "In The Mars Room, Rachel Kushner Is Standing Up for the Guilty," 27 Apr. 2018
Facts: Braun’s ad cites his opponents’ votes in 2015 for a catchall spending bill that funded much of the government through September 2016.

— maureen groppe, Indianapolis Star, "Indiana Senate race: Here's what's true and what's not in the nation's nastiest primary," 4 May 2018
Serendipitously, several retailers are also running major spring sales right now, including Anthropologie’s home department, which is offering the cutie catchall pictured above for less than $10.

— emily heller, Curbed, "The best spring home sales to shop right now," 4 May 2018
The touchscreen generation is a catchall term encompassing mostly toddlers and tykes, though an exception should be made for hockey’s band of tech-savvy bench bosses.

— alex prewitt, SI.com, "For NHL Teams and Players, iPads Have Become an Important Part of the Game," 17 Apr. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'catchall.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

First Known Use of catchall

1838

in the meaning defined above

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CATCHALL Defined for English Language Learners

catchall

noun

: something that holds or includes many different things

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