latch onto
latch onto verb: to obtain, acquire or get and keep hold of something.
Verb
latch onto (third-person singular simple present latches onto, present participle latching onto, simple past and past participle latched onto)
- To obtain, acquire or get and keep hold of something.
- They latched onto the idea and gave it up only reluctantly.
- And there was time for two more All Blacks tries, first flanker Adam Thomson flopping over after a break by Jimmy Cowan, before Williams latched onto a clever cross-kick by Kahui for his second touch-down with three minutes remaining.2011 September 16, Ben Dirs, “Rugby World Cup 2011: New Zealand 83-7 Japan”, in BBC Sport
- To approach or stay close to someone, especially in a manner perceived as bothersome.
- He was looking for someone to talk to and latched onto me for some reason.
Synonyms of latch onto
Forms of latch onto
| third-person singular present | latches onto |
|---|---|
| present participle | latching onto |
| past participle | latched onto |
| past | latched onto |
| alternative form | latch on to |
Questions about latch onto
- What does latch onto mean?
- Latch onto means to obtain, acquire or get and keep hold of something.
- What part of speech is latch onto?
- Latch onto is a verb.
- What is the past tense of latch onto?
- The past tense of latch onto is latched onto.
Words near latch onto in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: latch onto (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-au-latch onto.ogg.
Cite this entry: “latch onto.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/latch_onto. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.