-catch-

v. i. 1. To attain possession. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Have is have, however men do catch. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To take hold; as, the bolt does not catch. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. To spread by, or as by, infecting; to communicate. [ 1913 Webster ]

Does the sedition catch from man to man? Addison. [ 1913 Webster ]

To catch at, to attempt to seize; to be eager to get or use. “[ To ] catch at all opportunities of subverting the state.” Addison. --
To catch up with, to come up with; to overtake. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. Act of seizing; a grasp. Sir P. Sidney. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. That by which anything is caught or temporarily fastened; as, the catch of a gate. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

The common and the canon law . . . lie at catch, and wait advantages one againt another. T. Fuller. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

Hector shall have a great catch if he knock out either of your brains. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. Something desirable to be caught, esp. a husband or wife in matrimony. [ Colloq. ] Marryat. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. pl. Passing opportunities seized; snatches. [ 1913 Webster ]

It has been writ by catches with many intervals. Locke. [ 1913 Webster ]

7. A slight remembrance; a trace. [ 1913 Webster ]

We retain a catch of those pretty stories. Glanvill. [ 1913 Webster ]

8. (Mus.) A humorous canon or round, so contrived that the singers catch up each other's words. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Capable of being caught. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A cistern or vault at the point where a street gutter discharges into a sewer, to catch bulky matters which would not pass readily through the sewer. Knight. [ 1913 Webster ]

. Any crop grown between the rows of another crop or intermediate between two crops in ordinary rotation in point of time. -- Catch"-crop`ping, n.

Radishes . . . are often grown as a catch crop with other vegetables. L. H. Bailey. [Webster 1913 Suppl.]

n. A ditch or drain along the side of a hill to catch the surface water; also, a ditch at the side of a canal to catch the surplus water. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. One who, or that which, catches. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Baseball) The player who stands behind the batsman to catch the ball. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Bot.) A plant with the joints of the stem, and sometimes other parts, covered with a viscid secretion to which small insects adhere. The species of Silene are examples of the catchfly. [ 1913 Webster ]