- [countable] an act of catching something, for example a ball
- You made some brilliant catches today.
- He dropped several easy catches.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- awesome
- brilliant
- good
- …
- get
- make
- take
- …
- [countable] the total amount of things that are caught
- a huge catch of fish
Extra Examples- Fishermen have been landing record catches this season.
- a bumper catch of tuna
- a restaurant where you can sample the day's catch
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- big
- good
- huge
- …
- land
- make
- decline
- fall
- go up
- …
- catch of
- the catch of the day
- the day’s catch
- [countable] a device used for fastening something
- Fran slipped the catch on the door, then turned to say goodbye.
- I can’t open the catch on this bracelet.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- door
- window
- safety
- …
- release
- undo
- unfasten
- …
- [countable, usually singular] (informal) a hidden difficulty or disadvantage
- All that money for two hours' work—what's the catch?
- It sounds too good. There must be a catch.
- [uncountable] a child’s game in which two people throw a ball to each other
- [singular] (old-fashioned) a person that other people see as a good person to marry, employ, etc.
- He’s a good catch.
of ball
amount caught
fastening
difficulty
child’s game
person
Word OriginMiddle English (also in the sense ‘chase’): from Anglo-Norman French and Old Northern French cachier, variant of Old French chacier, based on Latin captare ‘try to catch’, from capere ‘take’.
Idioms
See catch in the Oxford Advanced American DictionarySee catch in the Oxford Learner's Dictionary of Academic English(a) catch-22 | a catch-22 situation
- (informal) a difficult situation from which there is no escape because you need to do one thing before doing a second, but you need to do the second thing before you can do the first
- I can't get a job because I haven't got anywhere to live but I can't afford a place to live until I get a job—it's a catch-22 situation.
Check pronunciation:
catch