Word.ws English Dictionary

latching onto

latching onto is the present participle and gerund of latch onto.

Meaning of latch onto

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic, transitive) To obtain, acquire or get and keep hold of something.
    • They latched onto the idea and gave it up only reluctantly.
  2. (idiomatic, transitive) 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.

Questions about latching onto

What is latching onto the present participle and gerund of?
Latching onto is the present participle and gerund of latch onto.

Words near latching onto in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: latching onto (page history and authors); 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.

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