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Ketch
Definitions
- 1 A fore-and-aft rigged sailing vessel with two masts, main and mizzen, the mizzen being stepped forward of the rudder post.
"[…] to finish her new Habit or Appearance, and make her Change compleat, he ordered her Sails to be alter’d; and as she sailed before with a Half-Sprit, like a Yacht, she sailed now with square Sail and Mizen Mast, like a Ketch; so that, in a Word, she was a perfect Cheat […]"
- 2 A hangman.
- 3 A pie or turnover. UK, dialectal
- 4 Synonym of Jack Ketch (“a public executioner”).
"Hanging was indeed the popular remedy for all criminal disorders. The legislator found patients for it, the judge prescribed it, and the Ketch administered it with the same callous and gallows indifference."
- 5 a sailing vessel with two masts; the mizzen is forward of the rudderpost wordnet
- 1 Pronunciation spelling of catch. alt-of, pronunciation-spelling
"I guess, he is trying to ketch mebut it won't du. I'm tu old a bird to be ketch'd with chaff."
- 2 To hang. rare
"'Squire Ketch rejoices as much to hear of a new Vox, as an old Sexton does to hear of a new Delight."
Etymology
From Middle English catche, from cacchen (“to catch”). For the modern form with /ɛ/, compare the pronunciation /kɛtʃ/ of catch.
See catch.
From Jack Ketch, a hangman of the 17th century.
From Jack Ketch, a hangman of the 17th century.
From Middle English kechel (“small cake”), from Old English *cēċel (“small cake”), from Proto-West Germanic *kōkil (“small cake”).
See also for "ketch"
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