catching
Americanadjective
-
tending to be transmitted from one person to another; contagious or infectious.
a disease that is catching;
His enthusiasm is catching.
-
attractive; fascinating; captivating; alluring.
a catching personality.
adjective
-
infectious
-
attractive; captivating
Other Word Forms
- catchingly adverb
- catchingness noun
Etymology
Origin of catching
late Middle English word dating back to 1375–1425; catch, -ing 2
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The good news for West Ham, though, is that if Spurs are able to build on Sunday's spirited draw and fire themselves up the table, there are still several other teams within catching distance.
From BBC
That amounted to a clear technical signal that it was time to buy, and that anyone who did so wasn’t at risk of catching a so-called falling knife.
From Barron's
The latest delay comes as federal statistics agencies are just catching up on publishing scores of economic reports that were postponed by the shutdown last fall.
From MarketWatch
“While our instinct based on the fundamentals is to jump in and buy those that we think will be winners longer term, that seems very much like catching a falling knife at the moment.”
From MarketWatch
He’s sitting in the desk chair, tossing a baseball into the air and catching it.
From Literature
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
