Word.ws English Dictionary

latching

latching is the present participle and gerund of latch.

Noun

latching (plural latchings)

  1. The act of fastening a latch.
  2. A loop or eye formed on the head rope of a bonnet, by which it is attached to the foot of a sail.
  3. The situation where one speaker's utterance immediately follows another speaker's utterance, without pause or overlap.

Meaning of latch

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.

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...

See all 12 meanings of latch

Adjective

latching (not comparable)

  1. That latches.
    • A doorknob of whatever roundish shape is effectively a continuum of levers, with the axis of the latching mechanism—known as the spindle—being the fulcrum about which the turning takes place.2012 March, Henry Petroski, “Opening Doors”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, pages 112–3

Forms of latching

plurallatchings

Phrases with latching

Questions about latching

What does latching mean?
Latching means that latches.
What is latching the present participle and gerund of?
Latching is the present participle and gerund of latch.
What part of speech is latching?
Latching can be an adjective or a noun.

Words near latching in the dictionary

  1. latches onto
  2. latchet
  3. latcheth
  4. latchets
  5. Latchford
  6. latching
  7. latching on
  8. latching onto
  9. Latchingdon
  10. latchings
  11. latchkey

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: latching (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.

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