喜樂美語
  1. 1包山包海的、概括一切的。法律或表格裡的「其他」往往就是這種一網打盡的欄位。

    Catch-all describes something made to hold every leftover case. A catch-all term is one label people use when they want a single word to cover many different things. A catch-all rule, law, or category tries to include every possibility, so nothing slips out. It comes from catch + all: it 'catches all' of them. That can be handy when a list would never end. Though actually it can also be lazy, or even unfair — if the net is too wide, it catches people and things that do not really belong. You will usually see it in front of a noun: a catch-all phrase, a catch-all clause. Some people write it as one word, ; that spelling is also used for a junk drawer, which is a different picture of the same idea.

    catch-all 形容一種用來裝下所有剩下情況的東西，例如一個標籤涵蓋很多不同的事，或一條規則試著包含所有可能。它來自 catch 加 all，字面就是把全部都抓住。清單永遠列不完的時候很好用，像 「a catch-all phrase」 和 「a catch-all clause」，都通常放在名詞前面。

    不過網子撒太大，也可能偷懶或不公平，把不該抓的人和東西都抓進來。有人會寫成一個字 catchall，那個拼法也指雜物抽屜，畫面不同，概念相同。

From the word’s history

From catch + all.

由 catch 加 all 組成。

Wiktionary

組成From catch + -all: built to catch all the leftover cases.

同家族的字

  • catchto take hold of; here, to take in every case
  • allevery one; nothing left out
  • catchallthe one-word spelling; often the drawer, not the rule

原始詞典資料2 筆記錄

以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。

catch-allnoun

  • 1

    Any place or repository where things are placed indiscriminately or without careful thought.

    • If you're not careful, the entrance table will quickly become a catch-all for things that come in the door.
    • The category was a catch-all for items that were not filed elsewhere.

這個拼法也被記錄為下列字的變化形：

  • catch-all term

摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。