CATCHING

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does catching mean? 

• CATCHING (noun)
  The noun CATCHING has 3 senses:

1. (baseball) playing the position of catcher on a baseball team

2. the act of detecting something; catching sight of something

3. becoming infected

  Familiarity information: CATCHING used as a noun is uncommon.

• CATCHING (adjective)
  The adjective CATCHING has 1 sense:

1. (of disease) capable of being transmitted by infection

  Familiarity information: CATCHING used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CATCHING (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

(baseball) playing the position of catcher on a baseball team

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("catching" is a kind of...):

playing (the action of taking part in a game or sport or other recreation)

Domain category:

ball; baseball; baseball game (a ball game played with a bat and ball between two teams of nine players; teams take turns at bat trying to score runs)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The act of detecting something; catching sight of something

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

catching; detection; espial; spotting; spying

Hypernyms ("catching" is a kind of...):

discovery; find; uncovering (the act of discovering something)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Becoming infected

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

catching; contracting

Context example:

the contracting of a serious illness can be financially catastrophic

Hypernyms ("catching" is a kind of...):

acquiring; getting (the act of acquiring something)

Derivation:

catching ((of disease) capable of being transmitted by infection)

• CATCHING (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

(of disease) capable of being transmitted by infection

Synonyms:

catching; communicable; contagious; contractable; transmissible; transmittable

Similar:

infectious (easily spread)

Derivation:

catching (becoming infected)

 Context examples 

Only the robber-publications seemed to remain actively in business, and to them Martin disposed of all his early efforts, such as Pearl-diving, The Sea as a Career, Turtle-catching, and The Northeast Trades.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

You will love catching up with friends.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

Now she had a golden ball in her hand, which was her favourite plaything; and she was always tossing it up into the air, and catching it again as it fell.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

Within Pluto’s informally named Vega Terra region is a field of eye-catching craters that looks like a cluster of bright halos scattered across a dark landscape.

(Pluto’s ‘Halo’ Craters, NASA)

Two features of the object’s spectra were particularly eye-catching and corresponded to the presence of ferric oxides and phyllosilicates.

(Exiled Asteroid Discovered in Outer Reaches of Solar System, ESO)

I had a catching of the breath, and my skin went cold at the words, which were slowly uttered in a tone of concentrated resolution.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Failing in this, Wolf raced back to where Walt Irvine sat, catching his coat-sleeve in his teeth and trying vainly to drag him after the retreating man.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

Just now his hobby is catching flies.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

“She may have drowned herself, miss,” returned Mr. Littimer, catching at an excuse for addressing himself to somebody.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

To my surprise, my clothes had dried on me and there seemed no indications of catching cold, either from the last soaking or from the prolonged soaking from the foundering of the Martinez.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)