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grab bag

noun

a container or receptacle from which a person at a party or the like draws a gift without knowing what it is.
any miscellaneous collection.

grab bag

noun

a collection of miscellaneous things
a bag or other container from which gifts are drawn at random

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Word History and Origins

Origin of grab bag¹

An Americanism dating back to 1850–55

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Idioms and Phrases

A miscellaneous collection, as in The meeting amounted to a grab bag of petty complaints . This term alludes to a container offered at a party or fair, where one dips in for a party favor or prize without knowing what one will get. [Mid-1800s]

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

Analysts and experts have offered a grab bag other explanations about why Trump made such an aggressive move on trade last week.

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After morning break, Mrs Curtis is putting together a grab bag for an eight-year-old pupil whose mum rang the school earlier to let them know they've had to leave their home in a hurry.

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Even Whole Foods has joined the movement, offering its own grab bags of surplus food via Too Good to Go.

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It’s mostly a grab bag of targeted subsidies: for parents of small children, for first-time homebuyers, for small businesses, for manufacturing and technology.

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Mr. Bayle was among the hundreds of farmers who rolled through the streets of Toulouse earlier this month in their tractors, joining a union-organized protest with a grab bag of demands for the government.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

grab grab bar

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