catch up

Alternative forms

• catch-up

Pronunciation

• Homophone: catchup

Verb

catch up (third-person singular simple present catches up, present participle catching up, simple past and past participle caught up)

1. (transitive) To pick up suddenly.
   • 1913, Willa Cather, O Pioneers!, chapter 3

     Oscar stopped the horses and waved to Carl, who caught up his hat and ran through the melon patch to join them.

2. (transitive) To entangle.

   The speaker wires have got caught up with the wires from the lights.

3. (intransitive) To be brought up to date with news.

   I hadn't seen her for so long. It was great to catch up.

4. (transitive) To bring someone else up to date with the news.

   After Alice's vacation, her boss caught her up on policy changes.

5. (intransitive) To reach something that had been ahead.

   Rose was three seconds behind, but managed to catch up with the race leader and eventually won.

6. (intransitive) To compensate for or make up a deficiency.
7. (intransitive) To get news.
8. (intransitive) To finally reach something inevitable.
   • 2012 June 17, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “Homer’s Triple Bypass” (season 4, episode 11; originally aired 12/17/1992)”, in The Onion AV Club‎:

     The episode begins with a lifetime of junk food, beer and no exercise catching up with Homer in the form of painful heart contractions.

Noun

catch up (countable and uncountable, plural catch ups)

1. An act of catching up or attempting to catch up.
2. An amount, a thing, or a receipt or repetition of information that enables one to catch up.