Ketch (k&ebreve;ch), n. [Prob. corrupted fr. Turk. qāīq : cf. F. caiche. Cf. Caïque.] (Naut.) An almost obsolete form of vessel, with a mainmast and a mizzenmast, -- usually from one hundred to two hundred and fifty tons burden.

Bomb ketch. See under Bomb.

Ketch, n. A hangman. See Jack Ketch.

Ketch, v. t. [See Catch.] To catch. [Now obs. in spelling, and colloq. in pronunciation.]

To ketch him at a vantage in his snares.

Spenser.

KETCH. Jack Ketch; a general name for the finishers of the
law, or hangmen, ever since the year 1682, when the office
was filled by a famous practitioner of that name, of whom
his wife said, that any bungler might put a man to death,
but only her husband knew how to make a gentleman die
sweetly. This officer is mentioned in Butler's Ghost, page
54, published about the year 1682, in the following lines:

Till Ketch observing he was chous'd,
And in his profits much abus'd.
In open hall the tribute dunn'd,
To do his office, or refund.

Mr. Ketch had not long been elevated to his office, for the
name of his predecessor Dun occurs in the former part of
this poem, page 29:

For you yourself to act squire Dun,
Such ignominy ne'er saw the sun.

The addition of 'squire,' with which Mr. Dun is here
dignified, is a mark that he had beheaded some state criminal
for high treason; an operation which, according to custom
for time out of mind, has always entitled the operator to
that distinction. The predecessor of Dun was Gregory
Brandon, from whom the gallows was called the Gregorian
tree, by which name it is mentioned in the prologue to
Mercurius Pragmaticus, tragi-comedy acted at Paris, &c.
1641:

This trembles under the black rod, and he
Doth fear his fate from the Gregorian tree.

Gregory Brandon succeeded Derrick. See DERRICK.