Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A container filled with articles, such as party gifts, to be drawn unseen.
  • noun Slang A miscellaneous collection.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A bag containing articles to be obtained by thrusting the hand within and seizing one, the privilege of doing so being previously bought, a common money-getting device at charitable fairs; figuratively, any unscrupulous device for gain or spoils, into which the element of uncertainty enters.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun a gift, purchase, etc. whose contents are concealed until after a selection is made
  • noun idiomatic any random assortment, selection or possibility

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a container from which a person draws a wrapped item at random without knowing the contents
  • noun an assortment of miscellaneous items

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From grab + bag.

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Examples

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