catchall
a bag, basket, or other receptacle for odds and ends.
something that covers a wide variety of items or situations: The list is just a catchall of things I want to see or do on vacation.
covering a wide variety of items or situations: The anthology is a catchall collection.
Origin of catchall
1Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use catchall in a sentence
He was accused of “formalism,” a catch-all accusation that, like “Trotskyite,” had the ring of execution about it.
In the blink of an eye, the hipster has turned into a catch-all scapegoat, guilty for everything from expensive beer to bad music.
“Dyslexia” has become a catch-all term for everything from poor reading skills to complex speech disorders.
When it was first announced, I thought it was a catch-all visit designed to accomplish several objectives at once.
Or is "culture" just a catch-all for "everything we can't readily understand and explain"?
But it was a desert outpost then, a catch-all for the human drift which every whirlwind of discovery sweeps along.
Mark Twain, A Biography, 1835-1910, Complete | Albert Bigelow PainePresently she reached the cove mentioned by Mr. Black as a catch-all for floating timber.
The Castaways of Pete's Patch | Carroll Watson RankinThe heavy smell of musk that hung around all of Mabel's belongings sickened me; and why should she make a catch-all of me, anyhow?
At Boarding School with the Tucker Twins | Nell SpeedBeyond was another apartment, darker than the one in which I stood—a sort of catch-all for the refuse of the former.
A Village of Vagabonds | F. Berkeley SmithThis sort of basket also is useful as a "catch-all" when hung at the side of a dressing-bureau.
British Dictionary definitions for catch-all
something designed to cover a variety of situations or possibilities
(as modifier): a catch-all clause
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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