latch

• enPR: lăch, IPA^(key): /læt͡ʃ/

• Audio (US):

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• Rhymes: -ætʃ

From Middle English lacchen (“to seize, catch, grasp”, verb), from Old English læċċan (“to grasp, take hold of, catch, seize”), from Proto-Germanic *lakjaną, *lakwijaną, *lakkijaną (“to seize”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)leh₂g-, *(s)leh₂gʷ- (“to take, seize”). Cognate with Middle Dutch lakken (“to grasp, catch”).

latch (third-person singular simple present latches, present participle latching, simple past and past participle latched or (obsolete) laught)

1. To close or lock as if with a latch.
2. (transitive) To catch; lay hold of.
   • c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii]:

     Where hearing should not latch them.

• latch on
• latch on to
• latch onto

From Middle English latche, lacche (“a latch; a trap”), from lacchen (“to seize, catch, grasp”), from Old English læċċan (“to grasp, take hold of, catch, seize”). See above for more.

latch (plural latches)

1. A fastening for a door that has a bar that fits into a notch or slot, and is lifted by a lever or string from either side.
   • 1912 October, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “Tarzan of the Apes”, in The All-Story, New York, N.Y.: Frank A. Munsey Co., →OCLC; republished as chapter 4, in Tarzan of the Apes, New York, N.Y.: A. L. Burt Company, 1914 June, →OCLC:

     The cleverly constructed latch which Clayton had made for the door had sprung as Kerchak passed out; nor could the apes find means of ingress through the heavily barred windows.

2. (electronics) An electronic circuit that is like a flip-flop, except that it is level triggered instead of edge triggered.
3. (obsolete) A latching.
4. (obsolete) A crossbow.
5. (obsolete) That which fastens or holds; a lace; a snare.
   • c. 1360s (date written)​, Geffray Chaucer [i.e., Geoffrey Chaucer], “The Romaunt of the Rose”, in [William Thynne], editor, The Workes of Geffray Chaucer Newlye Printed, […], [London: […] Richard Grafton for] Iohn Reynes […], published 1542, →OCLC:

     Love will none other birde catch,
     Though he set either nette or latch

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

6. A breastfeeding baby's connection to the breast.
7. (databases) A lightweight lock to protect internal structures from being modified by multiple concurrent accesses.

• lech, letch

Compare French lécher (“to lick”).

latch (third-person singular simple present latches, present participle latching, simple past and past participle latched)

1. (obsolete) To smear; to anoint.
   • c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:

     But hast thou yet latch'd the Athenian's eyes
     With the love-juice , as I did bid thee do?