Other forms: ketches
A ketch is a two-masted sailing boat. Sail a ketch, a gaff ketch, the ketch put out.
The second mast is shorter and stands forward of the rudder post, which is the technical line that separates a ketch from a yawl. Splitting the sail area across two masts makes each sail smaller and easier to handle, which suits a small crew.
1nounketchA two-masted sailing boat.
“We chartered a ketch for a week and sailed between the Greek islands.”
ketch is a boat.
It is catch with a worn-down vowel: the first ketches were catchers, fast boats sent out after other ships. Now it names a sailing boat with two masts.
hooks ontocatch
Middle English catche, apparently from catch, in the sense of a vessel that chases.
Middle English
catche
English, today
ketch
Built from
From Middle English catche, from cacchen (“to catch”). For the modern form with, compare the pronunciation of a doublet of catch.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA