catch
pronunciation
How to pronounce catch in British English:
UK [kætʃ]
How to pronounce catch in American English:
US [kætʃ]
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- Noun:
- a hidden drawback
- the quantity that was caught
- a person regarded as a good matrimonial prospect
- anything that is caught (especially if it is worth catching)
- a break or check in the voice (usually a sign of strong emotion)
- a restraint that checks the motion of something
- a fastener that fastens or locks a door or window
- a cooperative game in which a ball is passed back and forth
- the act of catching an object with the hands
- the act of apprehending (especially apprehending a criminal)
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- Verb:
- discover or come upon accidentally, suddenly, or unexpectedly; catch somebody doing something or in a certain state
- perceive with the senses quickly, suddenly, or momentarily
- reach with a blow or hit in a particular spot
- take hold of so as to seize or restrain or stop the motion of
- succeed in catching or seizing, especially after a chase
- to hook or entangle
- attract and fix
- capture as if by hunting, snaring, or trapping
- reach in time
- get or regain something necessary, usually quickly or briefly
- catch up with and possibly overtake
- be struck or affected by
- check oneself during an action
- hear, usually without the knowledge of the speakers
- see or watch
- cause to become accidentally or suddenly caught, ensnared, or entangled
- detect a blunder or misstep
- grasp with the mind or develop an undersatnding of
- contract
- start burning
- perceive by hearing
- suffer from the receipt of
- attract; cause to be enamored
- apprehend and reproduce accurately
- take in and retain
- spread or be communicated
- be the catcher
- become aware of
- delay or hold up; prevent from proceeding on schedule or as planned
Word Origin
- catch
- catch: [13] Originally catch meant ‘chase, hunt’ (and in fact it is etymologically related to the English word chase). However, it remarkably quickly moved on to be applied to the next logical step in the procedure, ‘capture’, and by the early 16th century ‘chase’ was becoming obsolete (although it remains the only sense of related words in other languages, such as French chasser and Italian cacciare).Looked at from another point of view, however, catch might be said to be harking back to its ultimate roots in Latin capere ‘take’, source of English capture. Its past participle, captus, provided the basis for a new verb captāre ‘try to seize, chase’. In Vulgar Latin this became altered to *captiāre, source of Old French chacier (whence English chase) and the corresponding Anglo-Norman cachier (whence English catch).=> capture, chase
- catch (v.)
- c. 1200, "to take, capture," from Anglo-French or Old North French cachier "catch, capture" (animals) (Old French chacier "hunt, pursue, drive (animals)," Modern French chasser "to hunt;" making it a doublet of chase (v.)), from Vulgar Latin *captiare "try to seize, chase" (also source of Spanish cazar, Italian cacciare), from Latin captare "to take, hold," frequentative of Latin capere "to take, hold" (see capable). Senses in early Middle English also included "chase, hunt," which later went with chase (v.). Of infections from 1540s; of fire from 1734; of sleep, etc., from early 14c. Related: Catched (obsolete); catching; caught. Meaning "act as a catcher in baseball" recorded from 1865. To catch on "apprehend" is 1884, American English colloquial. To catch (someone's) eye is first attested 1813, in Jane Austen. Catch as catch can first attested late 14c.
- catch (n.)
- late 14c., "device to hold a latch of a door," also "a trap;" also "a fishing vessel," from catch (v.). Meaning "action of catching" attested from 1570s. Meaning "that which is caught or worth catching" (later especially of spouses) is from 1590s. Sense of "hidden cost, qualification, etc." is slang first recorded 1855 in P.T. Barnum.
Example
- 1. You almost never catch a whiff of authorial self-consciousness .
- 2. You catch this in exchanges between chinese and americans .
- 3. The firefighters quickly prepared to catch the boys .
- 4. If not , yahoo cannot catch google anyway .
- 5. It 's important to know where your catch comes from .