To seize or lay hold on with the hand; carrying the sense of pursuit, thrusting forward the hand, or rushing on. And they came upon him and caught him. Acis 6:12.

To seize, in a general sense; as, to catch a ball; to catch hold of a bough.

To seize, as in a snare or trap; to ensnare; to entangle. They sent certain of the Pharisees and of the Herodians, to catch him in his words. Mark 12:13.

To seize in pursuit; hence simply to overtake; a popular use of the word. He ran, but could not catch him companion.

To take hold; to communicate to. The fire caught the adjoining building.

To seize the affections; to engage and attach to; as, to catch the fair.

To take or receive by contagion or infection; as, to catch the measles or small pox.

To snatch; to take suddenly; as, to catch a book out of the hand.

To receive something passing. The swelling sails no more catch the soft airs and wanton in the sky. Trumbull. To catch at, to endeavor to seize suddenly. To catch at all opportunities of subverting the state. To catch up, to snatch; to take up suddenly.

To communicate; to spread by infecting; as, a disease will catch from man to man.

Any thing that seizes or takes hold, as a hook.

The posture of seizing; a state of preparation to catch, or of watching an opportunity to seize; as, to lie upon the catch.

Asudden advantage taken.

The thing caught, considered as an object of desire; profit; advantage. Hector shall have a great catch.

A snatch; a short interval of action. It has been writ by catches.

A little portion. We retain a catch of a pretty story.

In music, a fugue in the unison, wherein to humor some conceit in the words, the melody is broken, and the sense is interrupted in one part, and caught and supported by another, or a different sense is given to the words; or a piece for three or more voices, one of which leads and the others follow in the same notes.