- catch
- catch vb1 Catch, capture, trap, snare, entrap, ensnare, bag are comparable when meaning to get into one's possession or under one's control either by taking or seizing or by means of skill, craft, or trickery.Catch, the ordinary and general term of this group, distinctively implies that the thing laid hold of has been in flight, in concealment, or in constant movement and that possession has been gained by pursuit, force, strategy, or surprise or by means of a device or accident which brings it within one's reach physically, visually, or mentally{
after several days' search the detectives caught the murderer
}{not able to catch the man who snatched her purse
}{catch fish
}{catch a ball
}{catch a pupil cheating in an examination
}{his eyes caught the skirt of her dress— Dickens
}{Yancey Cravat caught the word beneath his teeth and spat it back— Ferber
}{he smiled back like a child caught in a lie— Steinbeck
}Sometimes the power of laying hold of is ascribed not to a person, his vision or other sense, or his mind, heart, or imagination but to the thing which draws to itself his attention, his eye, or his fancy{the fact caught her interest, just as sometimes a point in a wide dull landscape catches the eye— Deland
}{two recent imports . . . offer striking new surprises which may catch unaware even the veteran reader— Anthony Boucher
}Capture implies heavier odds (as greater opposition or difficulty or more competition) than does catch and suggests a taking possession that amounts to an overcoming or a victory{capture a stronghold of the enemy
}{capture a company of retreating soldiers
}{he was making plans ... to capture the banking of the country— Belloc
}{no artist can set out to capture charm; he will toil all the night and take nothing— Benson
}Trap, snare, entrap, and ensnare imply catching by a device which holds the one caught in a position that is fraught with danger or difficulty or from which escape is difficult or impossible. Trap and snare imply the use of a trap or snare (see LURE n) but entrap and ensnare suggest trickery in capture more often than the use of an actual trap or snare: all four terms impute craft to the catcher and unwariness or lack of caution to the one that is caught. Distinctively, trap and entrap suggest a being held in a position where one is at the mercy of the captor and his designs, and snare and ensnare a being held so that the more one struggles the more desperate becomes one's situation{trap an animal
}{snare a bird
}{trap a detachment of soldiers with an ambush
}{themselves in bloody toils were snared— Scott
}{as if he would clear away some entanglement which had entrapped his thoughts— Bromfield
}{entrap a person by a sudden question into making a dangerous admission
}{Sympathetic to the regime that ensnared them in its monstrous net— B. D. Wolfe
}Bag carried a double implication of catching (as game or specimens) and of putting into a container (as a game bag) for transportation or storage{he bagged several rare butterflies within the last month
}{bag pheasants
}So strong is the implication of catching and killing game in this use that the word is often employed without suggestion of putting in a bag{they bagged three bears on their last hunting expedition
}{bagged the British rights to John Hersey's Hiroshima while other English publishers were asleep— Cerf
}Antonyms: miss2 *incur, contract
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
