latch
pronunciation
How to pronounce latch in British English:
UK [lætʃ]
How to pronounce latch in American English:
US [lætʃ]
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- Noun:
- spring-loaded doorlock that can only be opened from the outside with a key
- catch for fastening a door or gate; a bar that can be lowered or slid into a groove
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- Verb:
- fasten with a latch
Word Origin
- latch
- latch: see lace
- latch (v.)
- Old English læccan "to grasp or seize," from Proto-Germanic *lakkijanan. Not found in other Germanic languages; probably from PIE *(s)lagw- "to seize" (see analemma). In its original sense the verb was paralleled in Middle English and then replaced by French import catch (v.). Meaning "to fasten with a latch" is mid-15c. Related: Latched; latching.
- latch (n.)
- a fastening for a door, etc., late 13c., probably from latch (v.).
Example
- 1. It has no latch , and doesn 't switch the ipad screen on and off .
- 2. Through a series of experiments in ferrets , he isolated a strain with four mutations that helped the virus latch on to and infect cells in the throat .
- 3. Dendritic cells normally latch on to bacteria and viruses before migrating to the lymph nodes , where they present the alien material to the immune system 's " killer " t-cells that seek and destroy such invaders .