catching

Etymology

adj

1. (informal) Infectious, contagious.
   Ah, who is this? You did not hear me, my young friend, did you? Why, you, too, look sad. My melancholy is not catching! 1857, Herman Melville, chapter V, in The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade
2. Captivating; alluring; catchy.
   Bomb guy looked her up and down, not because he was an attractive man and she was possibly a catching woman. 2013, R. T. Wolfe, Dark Vengeance

noun

1. The action of the verb catch.
   Though catchings of the breath and occasional syncope appear in the more early stages, yet they only become considerable and dangerous in the later[…] 1819, Bartholomew Parr, The London Medical Dictionary

verb

1. present participle and gerund of catch