ketch means synonym of Jack Ketch (“a public executioner”).
ketch is pronounced /kɛt͡ʃ/.
Etymology
From Middle English catche, from cacchen (“to catch”). For the modern form with /ɛ/, compare the pronunciation /kɛtʃ/ of catch.
noun
- 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.”
- 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 […]”
- A hangman.“'Squire Ketch rejoices as much to hear of a new Vox, as an old Sexton does to hear of a new Delight.”
- A pie or turnover.
verb
- To hang.“Well! If he has a mind to be Ketch'd, speed him say I.”