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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Catch \Catch\, verb (used with an object) [imp. & p. p. {Caught}or {Catched}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Catching}. Catched is rarely used.] [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.
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.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Catching \Catch"ing\ a.
1. Infectious; contagious.
2. Captivating; alluring.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Catching \Catch"ing\, noun The act of seizing or taking hold of.
{Catching bargain} (Law), a bargain made with an heir expectant for the purchase of his expectancy at an inadequate price. --Bouvier.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
catching
adjective: (of disease) capable of being transmitted by infection [syn: {communicable}, {contagious}, {contractable}, {transmissible}, {transmittable}]
noun
1: (baseball) playing the position of catcher on a baseball team
2: the act of detecting something; catching sight of something [syn: {detection}, {espial}, {spying}, {spotting}]
3: becoming infected; "catching cold is sometimes unavoidable"; "the contracting of a serious illness can be financially catastrophic" [syn: {contracting}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
97 Moby Thesaurus words for "catching": alluring, annexational, appealing, appetizing, attractive, beguiling, bewitching, blandishing, cajoling, captivating, charismatic, charming, coaxing, come-hither, communicable, confiscatory, contagious, coquettish, deadly, deprivative, destructive, enchanting, endemic, engaging, enravishing, enthralling, enticing, entrancing, envenomed, epidemial, epidemic, epiphytotic, epizootic, exciting, exotic, expropriatory, fascinating, fetching, flirtatious, glamorous, hypnotic, infectious, infective, inoculable, interesting, intriguing, inviting, irresistible, malign, malignant, mephitic, mesmeric, miasmal, miasmatic, miasmic, mouth-watering, noxious, pandemic, pestiferous, pestilential, piquant, poisonous, prepossessing, privative, provocative, provoquant, ravishing, seducing, seductive, siren, sirenic, spellbinding, spellful, sporadic, spreading, taking, tantalizing, teasing, tempting, thievish, tickling, titillating, titillative, toxic, toxicant, toxiferous, transmissible, transmittable, venenate, veneniferous, venenous, venomous, virulent, winning, winsome, witching, zymotic
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Definitions retrieved from local copies of the freely distributed DICT client/server software and databases. Click here for database copyright information. - KM |