Emily Dickinson Lexicon

CATCH, n.

1. Seizure; the act of seizing.
2. Any thing that seizes or takes hold, as a hook.
3. The posture of seizing; a state of preparation to catch, or of watching an opportunity to seize; as, to lie upon the catch. – Addison.
4. A sudden advantage taken. – Dryden.
5. The thing caught, considered as an object of desire; profit; advantage. Hector shall have a great catch. – Shak.
6. A snatch; a short interval of action. It has been writ by catches. – Locke.
7. A little portion. We retain a catch of a pretty story. – Glanville.
8. In music, a fugue in the unison, wherein to humor some conceit in the words, the melody is broken, and the sense is interrupted in one part, and caught and supported by another, or a different sense is given to the words; or a piece for three or more voices, one of which leads and the others follow in the same notes. – Encyc. Busby.