catch-as-catch-can
catch-as-catch-can adjective: only when possible or when the opportunity presents itself; intermittent.
Adjective
catch-as-catch-can
- Only when possible or when the opportunity presents itself; intermittent.
- My efforts lately have been catch-as-catch-can, not carefully planned.
- My wife did indeed provide the more dependable contributions to our income while mine came catch-as-catch-can.1952, Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man, Penguin Books (2014), page x
- Relating to catch wrestling, a folk style of wrestling with minimal restrictions.
- In Lancashire and the north of Ireland, the catch-hold or catch-as-catch-can system still finds favour.1980, Walter Armstrong, Wrestling, page x
Adverb
catch-as-catch-can (comparative more catch-as-catch-can, superlative most catch-as-catch-can)
- Ad hoc; in any way possible.
Forms of catch-as-catch-can
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| alternative form | catch as catch can |
| Adverb | |
| comparative | more catch-as-catch-can |
| superlative | most catch-as-catch-can |
Questions about catch-as-catch-can
- What does catch-as-catch-can mean?
- Catch-as-catch-can means only when possible or when the opportunity presents itself; intermittent.
- What part of speech is catch-as-catch-can?
- Catch-as-catch-can can be an adjective or an adverb.
Words near catch-as-catch-can in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: catch-as-catch-can (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-catch-as-catch-can.ogg.
Cite this entry: “catch-as-catch-can.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/catch-as-catch-can. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.