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Glite Dictionary
ketch

ketch

1 8.8
A sailboat that has two masts and a smaller mast near the back
  • noun
  • /kɛtʃ/
  • Specialized
translation icon : ketch
  • She stirred a vague memory: surely I'd heard of a ketch by that name before.
  • ketch and a yawl

Examples

  • The crew worked diligently to prepare the ketch for its next voyage across the ocean.

  • She's a 55-foot steel ketch.

    Stander (2003)

  • You take the boat, check out the ketch.

    The Killer Elite (1975)

  • It's a ketch Kelly and I had chartered.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • Second, the fishing ketch Fortune was wrecked here... off the Grand Banks.

    The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953)

  • We're on the deck of the ketch, the air's soft, the water's clear as crystal...

    Fiction book (2000)

  • Chichester averaged 131 miles a day in his ketch.

    The Mercy (2018)

  • The big ketch lay motionless on unruffled water; the float line dried slack.

    Fiction book (1996)

  • Try as I might, I could not see how Carole Anne could sail one of the company's other boats, a similar-sized ketch with Gulliver's orange sails.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • As the sun set, the ketch glided gracefully through the calm waters of the bay.

How Many Masts

barque
  • Specialized
1 9.9
ketch
  • Specialized
1 8.8
sloop
6 8.1

Surface Forms

ketch singular
ketches plural

Etymology

The word ketch probably comes from a Dutch or German word like ketsch that meant 'small boat', so it helps to remember a ketch as a small two-masted sailing ship whose smaller back mast sits just in front of the rudder.