ketch

• Rhymes: -ɛtʃ

From Middle English catche. This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.

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 […]

• → Dutch: kits

• yawl.

• ketch on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

See catch

ketch (third-person singular simple present ketches, present participle ketching, simple past and past participle ketched)

1. Eye dialect spelling of 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.

From Jack Ketch, a hangman of the 17th century.

ketch (third-person singular simple present ketches, present participle ketching, simple 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.

ketch (plural ketches)

1. A hangman.