catch

English Online Dictionary. What means catch‎? What does catch mean?

English

Etymology

From Middle English cacchen, from Anglo-Norman cachier, variant of Old French chacier, from Late Latin captiāre, from Latin captāre, frequentative of capere. Akin to Modern French chasser (from Old French chacier) and Spanish cazar, and thus a doublet of chase. Compare ketch. Displaced Middle English fangen ("to catch"; > Modern English fang (verb)), from Old English fōn (“to seize, take”); Middle English lacchen ("to catch" and heavily displaced Modern English latch), from Old English læċċan.

The verb became irregular, possibly under the influence of the semantically similar latch (from Old English læċċan), whose past tense was lahte, lauhte, laught (Old English læhte), until becoming regularised in Modern English.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General Australian) enPR: kăch, IPA^(key): /kæt͡ʃ/
• (US, Canada) enPR: kăch, kĕch, IPA^(key): /kæt͡ʃ/, /kɛt͡ʃ/
  • Noah Webster's American Dictionary (1828) regards /kɛt͡ʃ/ as the "popular or common pronunciation." It is labeled "not infreq[uent]" in Kenyon & Knott (1949).
• (Southern US, obsolete) enPR: kŏch, IPA^(key): /kɑt͡ʃ/ (see cotch)
• Homophone: ketch (pronunciations as /kɛt͡ʃ/)
• Rhymes: -ætʃ, -ɛtʃ

Noun

catch (countable and uncountable, plural catches)

1. (countable) The act of seizing or capturing.

2. (countable) The act of catching an object in motion, especially a ball.

3. (countable) The act of noticing, understanding or hearing.
4. (uncountable) The game of catching a ball.

5. (countable) Something which is captured or caught.

6. (countable, colloquial, by extension) A find, in particular a boyfriend or girlfriend or prospective spouse.
8. (countable) A stopping mechanism, especially a clasp which stops something from opening.

9. (countable) A hesitation in voice, caused by strong emotion.

10. (countable, sometimes noun adjunct) A concealed difficulty, especially in a deal or negotiation.

11. (countable) A crick; a sudden muscle pain during unaccustomed positioning when the muscle is in use.

12. (countable) A fragment of music or poetry.
13. (obsolete) A state of readiness to capture or seize; an ambush.
14. (countable, agriculture) A crop which has germinated and begun to grow.
15. (obsolete) A type of strong boat, usually having two masts; a ketch.
17. (countable, music) A type of humorous round in which the voices gradually catch up with one another; usually sung by men and often having bawdy lyrics.
18. (countable, music) The refrain; a line or lines of a song which are repeated from verse to verse.
20. (countable, cricket, baseball) The act of catching a hit ball before it reaches the ground, resulting in an out.
21. (countable, cricket) A player in respect of his catching ability; particularly one who catches well.
22. (countable, rowing) The first contact of an oar with the water.
23. (countable, phonetics) A stoppage of breath, resembling a slight cough.
24. Passing opportunities seized; snatches.
25. A slight remembrance; a trace.

Synonyms

• (act of capturing): seizure, capture, collar, snatch
• (the act of catching a ball): grasp, snatch
• (act of noticing): observation
• (a find): prize, find; conquest, beau
• (quantity captured): haul, take
• (stopping mechanism): stop, chock; clasp, hasp, latch
• (hidden difficulty): snag, problem; trick, gimmick, hitch
• (fragment of music): snatch, fragment; snippet, bit
• (refrain): chorus, refrain, burden

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

catch (third-person singular simple present catches, present participle catching, simple past and past participle caught)

1. (heading) To capture, overtake.
   1. (transitive) To capture or snare (someone or something which would rather escape). [from 13^thc.]

   2. (transitive) To entrap or trip up a person; to deceive. [from 14^thc.]
   3. (transitive, figuratively, dated) To marry or enter into a similar relationship with.
   4. (transitive) To reach (someone) with a strike, blow, weapon etc. [from 16^thc.]
   5. (transitive) To overtake or catch up to; to be in time for. [from 17^thc.]
      • 2011 Allen Gregory, "Pilot" (season 1, episode 1):

        Allen Gregory DeLongpre: Did anyone catch the Charlie Rose the evening before last. Did you catch it? No, nothing?
   6. (transitive) To unpleasantly discover unexpectedly; to unpleasantly surprise (someone doing something). [from 17^thc.]
   8. (transitive) To travel by means of. [from 19^thc.]
   9. (transitive, rare) To become pregnant. (Only in past tense or as participle.) [from 19^thc.]
2. (heading) To seize hold of.
   1. (transitive, dated) To grab, seize, take hold of. [from 13^thc.]
   2. (transitive) To take or replenish something necessary, such as breath or sleep. [from 14^thc.]

   3. (transitive) To grip or entangle. [from 17^thc.]

   4. (intransitive) To be held back or impeded.
   5. (intransitive) To engage with some mechanism; to stick, to succeed in interacting with something or initiating some process.

   6. (transitive) To have something be held back or impeded.

   7. (intransitive) To make a grasping or snatching motion (at). [from 17^thc.]

   8. (transitive, of fire) To spread or be conveyed to. [from 18^thc.]

   9. (transitive, rowing) To grip (the water) with one's oars at the beginning of the stroke. [from 19^thc.]
   11. (intransitive, agriculture) To germinate and set down roots. [from 19^thc.]

   12. (transitive, surfing) To contact a wave in such a way that one can ride it back to shore.
   13. (transitive, computing) To handle an exception. [from 20^thc.]

3. (heading) To intercept.
   1. (transitive) To seize or intercept an object moving through the air (or, sometimes, some other medium). [from 16^thc.]

   2. (transitive, now rare) To seize (an opportunity) when it occurs. [from 16^thc.]
   3. (transitive, cricket) To end a player's innings by catching a hit ball before the first bounce. [from 18^thc.]

   4. (transitive, intransitive, baseball) To play (a specific period of time) as the catcher. [from 19^thc.]

4. (heading) To receive (by being in the way).
   1. (transitive) To be the victim of (something unpleasant, painful etc.). [from 13^thc.]

   2. (transitive) To be touched or affected by (something) through exposure. [from 13^thc.]

   3. (transitive) To become infected by (an illness). [from 16^thc.]

   4. (intransitive) To spread by infection or similar means.
   5. (transitive, intransitive) To receive or be affected by (wind, water, fire etc.). [from 18^thc.]
   1. (transitive) To acquire, as though by infection; to take on through sympathy or infection. [from 16^thc.]

   2. (transitive) To be hit by something.

   3. (intransitive) To serve well or poorly for catching, especially for catching fish.
   4. (intransitive) To get pregnant.

5. (heading) To take in with one's senses or intellect.
   1. (transitive) To grasp mentally: perceive and understand. [from 16^thc.]
   2. (transitive, informal) To take in; to watch or listen to (an entertainment). [from 20^thc.]

   3. (transitive) To reproduce or echo a spirit or idea faithfully. [from 17^thc.]

6. (heading) To seize attention, interest.
   1. (transitive) To charm or entrance. [from 14^thc.]
   2. (transitive) To attract and hold (a faculty or organ of sense). [from 17^thc.]

7. To notice.

Usage notes

• The older past and passive participle catched is now nonstandard.

Conjugation

Synonyms

• (seize in motion): fang, snatch, grab
• (capture prey): capture, take; snare, hook
• (be hit): take, get

Antonyms

• drop, release

Derived terms

Descendants

• → French: catch
• → Kabuverdianu:
  • → Portuguese: cachir
• → Spanish: cachar

Translations

References

French

Etymology

Derived from English catch-as-catch-can (a style of wrestling now known as catch wrestling). Doublet of chasser (“to hunt”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /katʃ/

Noun

catch m (uncountable)

1. wrestling; professional wrestling

Derived terms

• catcheur

Further reading

• “catch”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.