catchweight

English

Adverb

catchweight (not comparable)

1. (horse racing) Without any weight restrictions; without being handicapped.
   • 1976 December 3, “Oldtimers race is well received”, in El Paso Herald-Post:

     They'll break from the gate in full tack with jockeys riding catchweight in silks.

   to ride catchweight

Adjective

catchweight (not comparable)

1. (sports) Without any weight restrictions; having no handicap.
   • 1874, Baily's Magazine of Sports and Pastimes - Volume 25, page 225:

     There were also races for gentlemen-riders, in whch all the best performers of the day took part. Lord Glamis, afterwards Earl of Strathmore, rode his maiden race there—a catchweight match with Sir Watkin Wynn, a rare bit of fun got up by the officers of the 1st Life Guards.

   • 1934, Ridgwell Cullum, The Flaming Wilderness, page 265:

     And— He reached the paddock and took up an unobtrusive position at the rail to watch the first race for which a mounted Police bugler had just sounded the “Boot and Saddle.” It was a catchweight sprint for local farmers' ponies.

   • 1977, M. Eugene Ensminger, The Complete Encyclopedia of Horses, page 102:

     In a “catchweight" race, no horse is required to carry a specific weight. Instead, each horse may carry what his trainer chooses.

   • 2011, Sam Hawken, The Dead Women of Juárez, →ISBN:

     If pressed he would call these catchweight fights, but they were really just demolition without a weigh-in or any formality beyond money changing hands.

   • 2014, Mervyn Edwards, Stoke on Trent Pubs, →ISBN:

     At the time he took the pub on, Peter, aged twenty-five, was a catchweight wrestler.

2. Having no standard weight, but rather having weight determined when packaged for sale or shipping.
   • 1962, United States National Bureau of Standards, Simplified Practice Recommendation, page 50:

     It is regular practice to furnish wire in catchweight coils.

   • 1966, Donald S. MacKenzie, Prepared Meat Product Manufacturing, page 92:

     The scaler looks at the order ticket and selects a shipping container or containers of proper size to hold the catchweight items or those of 12 pounds or less. The catchweight items are weighed, marked, and placed in the containers.

   • 1977, Great Britain Parliament House of Lords, The Parliamentary Debates (Hansard).: House of Lords official report:

     The Department's main priorities have been goods sold loose — apples or herrings, to take two incompatible examples— and what are known as "catchweight" items. These are prepackaged products — cheese is one that immediately springs to mind — that by their nature are not normally made up in predetermined standard quantities.

   • 1979, Food Flavourings, Ingredients & Processing - Volume 1, page 187:

     For the retail market, kippers are available in either catchweight or fixed weight presentation.

   • 2007, Northern Ireland: Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment, Weights and measures report for the period 1 April 2002 to 31 March 2005, →ISBN:

     Certain commodities, notably goods packed in variable (catchweight) quantities, continue to be subject to the "minimum quantity provisions" and are regularly monitored.

Noun

catchweight (countable and uncountable, plural catchweights)

1. (sports) A weight category other than the standard weight categories: either an agreed-upon weight range or an agreement to allow any weight.
   • 1908, Cavalry Journal - Volume 3, page 266:

     There was an especially good entry, thirty-nine horses, representing twenty-two regiments, being entered in the Light Weight race, which was for horses five years old and upwards, the property of oflicers on full or half pay of the Regular Army, that had not won a race under the recognised rules of steeplechasing in any country, point-to-point races excepted; while eighteen faced the starter in the Welter race, in which the conditions were the same, excepting that the catchweight was 13 st. 7 lb.

   • 1911, Archibald Henderson, George Bernard Shaw His Life and Works, page 76:

     The fatal difference 'twixt his weight and mine, A second battle should he do this day : Nay, though outmatched I be, let but my mistress Give me the word: instant I'll take him on Here — now — at catchweight.

   • 1984, Lesley Choyce, The Cape Breton Collection, page 84:

     He was sent in at catchweights against George Chip before his left eye was healed from an old cut.

   • 2013, Alfred E. Pease, Hunting Reminiscences, →ISBN:

     The distance was three and threequarter miles, and the conditions briefly—catchweight over 13 stone, all horses to be the property of, and ridden by, an M.P., and no horse to have previously won a steeplechase.

   • 2014, Thomas Hauser, Thomas Hauser on Boxing: Another Year Inside the Sweet Science, →ISBN:

     On May 29, it was announced that the two men had signed to fight at a catchweight of 152 pounds.

2. The weight of an item that is not set to a standard, but which varies around an approximate value.
   • 1892, C. R. Sail, Farthest East, and South and West:

     Catchweights over 300 pounds would be about the correctest figure to give for ladies of the royal family ; and the women-folk generally are big-faced and big-bodied, though not especially large-limbed.

   • 1930, John Quayle Cannon, Standards and Specifications for Nonmetallic Minerals and Their Products:

     A number of trial fillings and catchweights may be necessary to obtain the desired degree of accuracy.

   • 2006, Matthias Lütke Entrup, Advanced Planning in Fresh Food Industries, →ISBN:

     For example, the catchweights of ham and pork loins can vary to a certain degree (Morris 2000).

   • 2012, Michael Thompson, Handbook of Inductively Coupled Plasma Spectrometry, →ISBN:

     Under these conditions catchweights of samples can be used, so long as they are within reasonable limits (say ±5% relative).

3. The weight of all the fish caught.
   • 1977, Robert G. Deindorfer, The incompleat angler: fishing Izaak Walton's favorite rivers, page 58:

     At the end of two hours, the first seventeen anglers up the line from me had taken a total of only three legal fish, which suggested I wasn't ... Carr told me the quantitative specialist wins an occasional match with the biggest total catchweight.

   • 2003, Australia. Parliament House of Representatives, Parliamentary Debates (Hansard).: Senate, page 9684:

     Catchweight seems to me to be a far more reasonable measure of impact than days at sea, even though the general impact of high levels of human activity should also be brought into the calculations.

   • 2009, Jan C. Hoorweg, Barasa Wangila, A. Allan Degen, Artisanal Fishers on the Kenyan Coast, →ISBN:

     In 2002/2003, the total catchweight reported by sport fishers was 235,308 kg (Wright 2008) with the largest landings in Malindi (46%) and Watamu (37%).