Word.ws English Dictionary

latch

/læt͡ʃ/

latch verb: to close or lock as if with a latch.

latch: to close or lock as if with a latch
Image: Dave&Lynne Slater from Cumbria, United kingdom, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Verb (1)

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.
    • Where hearing should not latch them.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...
  3. To use a latch (kind of lightweight lock).
  4. To connect to the breast.

Noun (1)

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.
    • 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.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[lbert]...
  2. 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.
    • Love will none other birde catch,
      Though he set either nette or latchc. 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...
  6. A breastfeeding baby's connection to the breast.
  7. A lightweight lock to protect internal structures from being modified by multiple concurrent accesses.

Verb (2)

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

  1. (obsolete) To smear; to anoint.
    • But hast thou yet latch'd the Athenian's eyes
      With the love-juice , as I did bid thee do?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...

Noun (2) capitalized: LATCH

LATCH (uncountable)

  1. (abbreviation, acronym) Acronym of lower anchors and tethers for children.

latch meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam and Gujarati

latch in Hindi

fastening for a door
सिटकिनी siṭkinī, कुंडी kuṇḍī, अर्गल argal

latch in Tamil

to close with a latch
தாழிடு tāḻiṭu
fastening for a door
தாழ் tāḻ, தாழ்ப்பாள் tāḻppāḷ

latch in Malayalam

fastening for a door
കുറ്റി kuṟṟi

latch in Gujarati

fastening for a door
નકૂચો nakūco
More languagesFewer languages
latch in Tagalog
busulan
latch in Arabic
زِلاَج, ضَبَّة ḍabba, مِزْلاَج
latch in Indonesian
selot
latch in Persian
کلون kolun
latch in Thai
กลอน glɔɔn, หน้าไม้ nâa-máai
latch in Vietnamese
chốt cửa, then cửa

Examples of latch in a sentence

  • They latched onto the idea and gave it up only reluctantly.
  • He was looking for someone to talk to and latched onto me for some reason.
  • The guard made sure all the latches were secure.

All 35 example sentences with latch

Forms of latch

Verb
third-person singular presentlatches
present participlelatching
past participlelatched
pastlatched
past participle (obsolete)laught
past (obsolete)laught
Noun
plurallatches
alternative formlech
alternative formletch

Past tense of latch: latched

Plural of latch: latches

Origin of latch

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”).

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.

Compare French lécher (“to lick”).

Words formed from latch

Phrases with latch

Words that rhyme with latch

16 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about latch

What does latch mean?
Latch means to close or lock as if with a latch.
What is latch in Hindi?
Latch in Hindi is सिटकिनी (siṭkinī), कुंडी (kuṇḍī), अर्गल (argal). See Latch meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is latch?
Latch can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce latch?
Latch is pronounced /læt͡ʃ/.
What is the past tense of latch?
The past tense of latch is latched.

Words near latch in the dictionary

  1. Latasan
  2. Latasha
  3. latasian
  4. Latasians
  5. Latavia
  6. latch
  7. latch key
  8. latch keys
  9. latch on
  10. latch onto
  11. latch'd

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: latch (page history and authors); LATCH (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-latch.ogg.

Cite this entry: “latch.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/latch. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.