catch as catch can
catch as catch can
Done by any means or in any possible way, often haphazardly. The restaurant was so busy during dinner that getting service was catch as catch can. When you're a surgical intern, sleep is simply catch as catch can in between cases.
See also: can, catch
catch-as-catch-can
With, by, or having whatever is available; as best as or in any way possible. Any new parent can tell you that sleep is catch-as-catch-can once your baby is born. There was a period in college when I was out of work and had to live catch-as-catch-can.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
catch as catch can
By whatever means or in any way possible, as in There was no formal language program; one simply learned Spanish catch as catch can. This term, in slightly varying versions but with the same meaning, dates from the late 1300s.
See also: can, catch
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
catch as catch can
By any method that can be used; without any specific plan or order. Variants of this term go back as far as the fourteenth century (“Was none in sight but cacche who that cacche might,” John Gower, ca. 1394) and appeared in John Heywood’s 1546 collection of proverbs (“Catch that catch may”). More specifically, it is the name of both a children’s game and a style of wrestling (also called freestyle) in which the wrestlers may get a hold on each other anyhow and anywhere.
See also: can, catch
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
- catch-as-catch-can
- catching
- catch (one) with (one's) pants down
- catch somebody with their pants down
- catch someone with their pants down
- catch with pants down
- like a greased pig
- catch hold of
- catch/get/grab/take hold of somebody/something
- catch (a)hold of (someone or something)