latch 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
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    type of:
    grasp, hold on
    hold firmly
  2. verb
    synonyms: fasten on, hook on, seize on, take up
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    type of:
    adopt, embrace, espouse, sweep up
  3. verb
    understand, usually after some initial difficulty
    synonyms: catch on, cotton on, get it, get onto, get wise, tumble, twig
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    type of:
    apprehend, compass, comprehend, dig, get the picture, grasp, grok, savvy
    understand or perceive the meaning of something
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