English
ketch
Noun

ketch (plural ketches)

  1. A fore-and-aft rigged sailing vessel with two masts, main and mizzen, the mizzen being stepped forward of the rudder post.
    • 1720, Daniel Defoe, Captain Singleton, London: J. Brotherton et al., p. 313,
      […] to finish her new Habit or Appearance, and make her Change compleat, he ordered her Sails to be alter’d; and as she sailed before with a Half-Sprit, like a Yacht, she sailed now with square Sail and Mizen Mast, like a Ketch; so that, in a Word, she was a perfect Cheat […]
Translations
  • Portuguese: queche
  • Russian: кеч
  • Spanish: queche
Verb

ketch (ketches, present participle ketching; past and past participle ketched)

  1. Eye dialect spelling of catch#English|catch.
    • 1815, D. HUMPHREYS, Yankey in England, I. 21,
      I guess, he is trying to ketch mebut it won't du. I'm tu old a bird to be ketch'd with chaff.
    • 1865, Charles Dickens, Our Mutual Friend, II. IV. xv., page 287
      Wot is it, lambs, as they ketches in seas, rivers, lakes, and ponds?
    • 1883 [see KNUCK 2].
    • 1911, Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome, volume ii, page 60
      You'll ketch your death. The fire's out long ago.
    • 1916, W. O. BRADLEY, Stories & Speeches 18
      You'll never ketch me hollerin' at no Republican gatherin'.
    • 1929, H. W. ODUM, in A. Dundes Mother Wit (1973), page 184
      If so you gonna ketch hell.
    • 1967, Atlantic Monthly, Apr. 103/1
      You heard about that joke a dollar down and a dollar when you ketch me?
    • 1968 S. STUCKEY, in A. Chapman, New Black Voices (1972), page 445
      Run, nigger, run, de patrollers will ketch you.
Verb

ketch (ketches, present participle ketching; past and past participle ketched)

  1. (rare) To hang.
    • 1681, T. FLATMAN Heraclitus Ridens No. 14
      'Squire Ketch rejoices as much to hear of a new Vox, as an old Sexton does to hear of a new Delight.
    • n.d., Ibid;;. No. 18
      Well! If he has a mind to be Ketch'd, speed him say I.
    • 1840, Fraser's Mag., XXI. 210
      Ignorant of many of the secrets of ketchcraft.
    • 1859, MATSELL Vocab. s.v. (Farmer),
      I'll ketch you; I'll hang you.
Noun

ketch (plural ketches)

  1. A hangman.


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