latch

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A fastening, as for a door or gate, typically consisting of a bar that fits into a notch or slot and is lifted from either side by a lever or string.
2. n. A spring lock, as for a door, that is opened from the outside by a key.
3. v. To close or lock with or as if with a latch.
4. v. To have or be closed with a latch.
5. v. To shut tightly so that the latch is engaged: a door too warped to latch.
6. idiom. on to To get hold of; obtain: latched on to a fortune in the fur trade.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To seize; lay hold of; snatch; catch.
2. To take; snatch up or off.
3. To receive; obtain.
4. To hold; support; retain.
5. To close or fasten with a latch; as, to latch a gate.
6. To snatch: with at.
7. To light or fall.
8. To tarry; loiter; lag.
9. n. A device for catching or retaining something; a catch. Specifically— A trap; snare.
10. n. A kind of gravity-lock, or door fastening consisting of some form of pivoted bolt falling into and catching against a catch or stop. Latches are usually made with a lifter or lever for raising the bar from either side of the door. Some simple forms consist merely of a wooden baron the inside, which is raised by a string passed through a hole in the door, Door- and gate-latches are made in many forms, and are described by their names, rim-, night-, thumb-latches, etc.
11. n. Nautical, a small line like a loop, used to fasten a bonnet on the foot of a sail. Also latching.
12. n. The trigger of a crossbow; hence, the crossbow itself when it is of the kind discharged by a latch.
13. n. In a knitting-machine, same as fly, 3 .
14. To pour or drip (water); dribble.
15. To drip a liquid upon; moisten.
16. See leach.
17. n. A miry place.
18. n. A tanners' pit, sunk below the general level of the ground, in which ooze is prepared from tan-bark or other similar material by leaching it with water. A contraction of latch- or leach-pit.

Wiktionary

1. n. A fastening for a door that has a bar that fits into a notch or slot, and is lifted by a lever or string from either side.
2. n. A flip-flop electronic circuit
3. n. obsolete A latching.
4. n. obsolete A crossbow.
5. v. To close or lock as if with a latch

GNU Webster's 1913

1. v. obsolete To smear; to anoint.
2. n. obsolete That which fastens or holds; a lace; a snare.
3. n. A movable piece which holds anything in place by entering a notch or cavity; specifically, the catch which holds a door or gate when closed, though it be not bolted.
4. n. (Naut.) A latching.
5. n. obsolete A crossbow.
6. v. obsolete To catch so as to hold.
7. v. To catch or fasten by means of a latch.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. spring-loaded doorlock that can only be opened from the outside with a key
2. n. catch for fastening a door or gate; a bar that can be lowered or slid into a groove
3. v. fasten with a latch