The Collaborative International Dictionary
Catch \Catch\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Caughtor 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.]
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.
To seize after pursuing; to arrest; as, to catch a thief. ``They pursued . . . and caught him.''
--Judg. i. 6.To take captive, as in a snare or net, or on a hook; as, to catch a bird or fish.
Hence: To insnare; to entangle. ``To catch him in his words''.
--Mark xii. 13.To seize with the senses or the mind; to apprehend; as, to catch a melody. ``Fiery thoughts . . . whereof I catch the issue.''
--Tennyson.To communicate to; to fasten upon; as, the fire caught the adjoining building.
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To engage and attach; to please; to charm.
The soothing arts that catch the fair.
--Dryden. -
To get possession of; to attain.
Torment myself to catch the English throne.
--Shak. 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.
To come upon unexpectedly or by surprise; to find; as, to catch one in the act of stealing.
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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.
Wiktionary
vb. (context obsolete or nonstandard English) (en-past of: catch)
Usage examples of "catched".
Me - said that Daire was hardly a boy cuando was catched and attacked Thal.
The best whales were catched in his own country, of which some were forty-eight, some fifty yards long.
Just the night before I left for Yavapai, I catched him coming out of her house, and was fixing to sweep the street with him when Dolly come out and stopped me and made us shake hands.
But by and by, as said, this evening after sundown, the wind sitting in the west, biggish swollen clouds to be seen as the night increased and the weatherwise poring up at them and some sheet lightnings at first and after, past ten of the clock, one great stroke with a long thunder and in a brace of shakes all scamper pellmell within door for the smoking shower, the men making shelter for their straws with a clout or kerchief, womenfolk skipping off with kirtles catched up soon as the pour came.
And as it happens that I am here, in the bed to you, and who tonight you have commented me an amount of things that are personal, I suppose that I have catched to you in a while of weakness or that&hellip.
I ducked just in time to keep from getting my head blowed off, and catched most of the double-charge in my shoulder, whilst the rest hived in the seat of Steve Kirby's britches.