Latch
[lætʃ]
Definition
(noun.) catch for fastening a door or gate; a bar that can be lowered or slid into a groove.
(noun.) spring-loaded doorlock that can only be opened from the outside with a key.
(verb.) fasten with a latch; 'latch the door'.
Edited by Astor--From WordNet
Definition
(v. t.) To smear; to anoint.
(n.) That which fastens or holds; a lace; a snare.
(n.) A movable piece which holds anything in place by entering a notch or cavity; specifically, the catch which holds a door or gate when closed, though it be not bolted.
(n.) A latching.
(n.) A crossbow.
(n.) To catch so as to hold.
(n.) To catch or fasten by means of a latch.
Checker: Lorenzo
Definition
n. a small piece of wood or iron to fasten a door.—v.t. to fasten with a latch: to hold retain: (obs.) to seize.—ns. Latch′et a strap or buckle for fastening a shoe; Latch′key a key to raise the latch of a door.—On the latch not locked but opened by a latch.
v.t. (Shak.) to moisten.
Edited by Aaron
Unserious Contents or Definition
To dream of a latch, denotes you will meet urgent appeals for aid, to which you will respond unkindly. To see a broken latch, foretells disagreements with your dearest friend. Sickness is also foretold in this dream.
Inputed by Gracie
Examples
- Of course, with a door only on the latch behind me, I lost not my opportunity. Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
- Research has shown, however, that the latch was not broadly new with Hibbert, as it appeared in the French patent to Jeandeau, No. 1,900, of April 25, 1806. Edward W. Byrn. The Progress of Invention in the Nineteenth Century.
- Taking the brewery on my way back, I raised the rusty latch of a little door at the garden end of it, and walked through. Charles Dickens. Great Expectations.
- As for hindrance to this step, there offered not so much as a creaking hinge or a clicking latch. Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
- He was looking away; but at the sound of the latch he turned quickly round. Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell. North and South.
- Entering a portal, fastened only by a latch, I stood amidst a space of enclosed ground, from which the wood swept away in a semicircle. Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
- Softly now, like one who has only one sense, the tactile sense, he turned the latch. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- It was a cold hard easterly morning when he latched the garden gate and turned away. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- The great gates were closed and locked; but a wicket in one of them was only latched. Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
Typed by Ellie