Catch, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Caught or Catched (; p. pr. & vb. n. Catching. Catched is rarely used.]
Etymology: [OE. cacchen, OF. cachier, dialectic form of chacier to hunt, F. chasser, fr. (assumend) LL. captiare, for L. capture, V. intens. of capere to take, catch. See Capacious, and cf. Chase, Case a box.]
1. To lay hold on; to seize, especially with the hand; to grasp (anything) in motion, with the effect of holding; as, to catch a ball.
2. To seize after pursuing; to arrest; as, to catch a thief. "They pursued . . . and caught him." Judg. i. 6.
3. To take captive, as in a snare or net, or on a hook; as, to catch a bird or fish.
4. Hence: To insnare; to entangle. "To catch him in his words". Mark xii. 13.
7 more senses
5. To seize with the senses or the mind; to apprehend; as, to catch a melody. "Fiery thoughts . . . whereof I catch the issue." Tennyson.
6. To communicate to; to fasten upon; as, the fire caught the adjoining building.
7. To engage and attach; to please; to charm. The soothing arts that catch the fair. Dryden.
8. To get possession of; to attain. Torment myself to catch the English throne. Shak.
9. To take or receive; esp. to take by sympathy, contagion, infection, or exposure; as, to catch the spirit of an occasion; to catch the measles or smallpox; to catch cold; the house caught fire.
10. To come upon unexpectedly or by surprise; to find; as, to catch one in the act of stealing.
11. To reach in time; to come up with; as, to catch a train. To catch fire, to become inflamed or ignited. -- to catch it to get a scolding or beating; to suffer punishment. [Colloq.] -- To catch one's eye, to interrupt captiously while speaking. [Colloq.] "You catch me up so very short." Dickens. -- To catch up, to snatch; to take up suddenly.
2 other Webster entries under this spelling
Catch, v. i.
1. To attain possession. [Obs.] Have is have, however men do catch. Shak.
2. To be held or impeded by entanglement or a light obstruction; as, a kite catches in a tree; a door catches so as not to open.
3. To take hold; as, the bolt does not catch.
4. To spread by, or as by, infecting; to communicate. Does the sedition catch from man to man Addison. To catch at, to attempt to seize; to be egger to get or use. "[To] catch at all opportunities of subverting the state." Addison. -- To catch up with, to come up with; to overtake.
Catch, n.
1. Act of seizing; a grasp. Sir P. Sidney.
2. That by which anything is caught or temporarily fastened; as, the catch of a gate.
3. The posture of seizing; a state of preparation to lay hold of, or of watching he opportunity to seize; as, to lie on the catch. [Archaic] Addison. The common and the canon law . . . lie at catch, and wait advantages one againt another. T. Fuller.
4. That which is caught or taken; profit; gain; especially, the whole quantity caught or taken at one time; as, a good catch of fish. Hector shall have a great catch if he knock out either of your brains. Shak.
5. Something desirable to be caught, esp. a husband or wife in matrimony. [Colloq.] Marryat.
6. pl.
Passing opportunities seized; snatches. It has been writ by catches with many intervals. Locke.
7. A slight remembrance; a trace. We retain a catch of those pretty stories. Glanvill.
8. (Mus.)
A humorous canon or round, so contrived that the singers catch up each other's words.
Shades of meaning
To catch is to come up with or take possession of something departing, fugitive, or illusive. We catch a runaway horse, a flying ball, a mouse in a trap. We clutch with a swift, tenacious movement of the fingers; we grasp with a firm but moderate closure of the whole hand; we grip or gripe with the strongest muscular closure of the whole hand possible to exert. We clasp in the arms. We snatch with a quick, sudden, and usually a surprising motion. In the figurative sense, catch is used of any act that brings a person or thing into our power or possession; as, to catch a criminal in the act; to catch an idea, in the sense of apprehend or comprehend. Compare arrest.
Prepositions
To catch at a straw; to catch a fugitive by the collar; to catch a ball with the left hand; he caught the disease from the patient; the thief was caught in the act; the bird in the snare.