latch on

Other forms: latched on; latching on; latches on

When you latch on to something, you attach yourself to it. You can latch on to your friend by grabbing her arm, or you can latch on to a trend by enthusiastically following it.

When your sister latches on to a new hat craze, she'll buy a bagful of berets and fedoras and wear one to school every single day. And if you latch on to a new health regimen, you may annoy your family by throwing out everything in the house with sugar in it. When you latch on to a person, it's often unwelcome to them: "My little brother latched on to my friends, so we jumped on our bikes and rode away."

Definitions of latch on

1. verb

   take hold of or attach to
   type of:

   grasp, hold on

   hold firmly
2. verb

   adopt
   synonyms: fasten on, hook on, seize on, take up

   type of:

   adopt, embrace, espouse, sweep up

   take up the cause, ideology, practice, method, of someone and use it as one's own
3. verb

   understand, usually after some initial difficulty
   synonyms: catch on, cotton on, get it, get onto, get wise, tumble, twig

   type of:

   apprehend, compass, comprehend, dig, get the picture, grasp, grok, savvy

   understand or perceive the meaning of something