Word.ws English Dictionary

catch-coldy

catch-coldy adjective: prone to catching colds or particularly susceptible to illness during cold weather.

Adjective

catch-coldy (comparative more catch-coldy, superlative most catch-coldy)

  1. (colloquial, dated) Prone to catching colds or particularly susceptible to illness during cold weather.
    • "I am different. I am not a catch-coldy person, and I have a thicker mop of hair," said Lady Matilda frankly. "Besides which, I don't know that you ever saw me sitting out of doors in a sharp frost with a bare head."1884, William Blackwood & Sons, “The Baby's Grandmother.— Part V”, in Blackwood's Edinburgh magazine, page 339
    • Cricket on the whole has been interesting to watch, and the grounds are hard and fast, but the northerly direction of the wind has made it catch-coldy work in the pavilion. We are still expecting summer.1898, Unattributed, “The late Mr. I. D. Walker.”, in Country Life, page 44

Examples of catch-coldy in a sentence

  • Because Russia in this transition month is very catch-coldy.1919, Johnston, Harry Hamilton, Sir, 1858-1927, “VIII Paul's Love Story”, in The Gay-Dombeys; a novel, page 106:
  • Yes, though I had known him since I was a child, and he was grey then, I supposed him not more than seventy at the very most, delicate and catch-coldy because of his foreign birth.1926, violet hunt, i have this to say: the story of my flurried years, page 274:

Forms of catch-coldy

comparativemore catch-coldy
superlativemost catch-coldy

Origin of catch-coldy

From catch cold + -y.

Questions about catch-coldy

What does catch-coldy mean?
Catch-coldy means prone to catching colds or particularly susceptible to illness during cold weather.
How do you use catch-coldy in a sentence?
Because Russia in this transition month is very catch-coldy.
What part of speech is catch-coldy?
Catch-coldy is an adjective.

Words near catch-coldy in the dictionary

  1. catch-ball
  2. catch-basin
  3. catch-basins
  4. catch-breath
  5. catch-breaths
  6. catch-coldy
  7. catch-dog
  8. catch-meadow
  9. catch-meadows
  10. catch-phrase
  11. catch-phrases

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: catch-coldy (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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