latch onto

noun

a device for holding a door, gate, or the like, closed, consisting basically of a bar falling or sliding into a catch, groove, hole, etc.

verb (used with object)

to close or fasten with a latch.

verb (used without object)

to close tightly so that the latch is secured: The door won't latch.

Verb phrases

latch on,

to grab or hold on, as to an object or idea, especially tightly or tenaciously.

to include or add in; attach: If we latch the tax on, the bill will come to over $100.

latch onto, Informal.

to take possession of; obtain; get.

to acquire understanding of; comprehend.

to attach oneself to; join in with: The stray dog latched onto the children and wouldn't go home.

Origin:
before 950; 1930–35 for def 5; Middle English lacchen, Old English lǣccan to take hold of, catch, seize; akin to Greek lázesthai to take

Related forms

re·latch, verb (used with object)

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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Link To latch onto

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Latch onto is always a great word to know.

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a fool or simpleton; ninny.

a stew of meat, vegetables, potatoes, etc.

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Collins

World English Dictionary

latch (lætʃ)

—n
1.	a fastening for a gate or door that consists of a bar that may be slid or lowered into a groove, hole, etc
2.	a spring-loaded door lock that can be opened by a key from outside
3.	electronics Also called: latch circuit a logic circuit that transfers the input states to the output states when signalled, the output thereafter remaining insensitive to changes in input status until signalled again

—vb
4.	to fasten, fit, or be fitted with or as if with a latch

[Old English læccan to seize, of Germanic origin; related to Greek lazesthai]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

latch

O.E. læccan "to grasp or seize," from P.Gmc. *lakkijanan. Not found in other Gmc. languages; probably from PIE *(s)lagw- "to seize" (see analemma). The noun is first recorded 1331, from the verb. Latchkey (1825) is a key to draw back the latch of a door; latchkey

child first recorded 1944, Amer.Eng., in ref. to children who come home from school while both parents are at work.

American Heritage

Idioms & Phrases

latch onto

Also, latch on to.

Get hold of, grasp; also, understand, grasp mentally. For example, They latched onto a fortune in the fur trade, or Carol quickly latched on to how the sewing machine works. [c. 1930]
Attach oneself to, join in with, as in Rob didn't know the way so he latched on to one of the older children. [c. 1930]

Matching Quote

"There is a place where we are always alone with our own mortality, where we must simply have something greater than ourselves to hold onto—God or history or politics or literature or a belief in the healing power of love, or even righteous anger.... A reason to believe, a way to take the world by the throat and insist that there is more to this life than we have ever imagined."

-Dorothy Allison

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