From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishcatch up phrasal verb1 IMPROVEto improve and reach the same standard as other people in your class, group etc If you miss a lot of classes, it’s very difficult to catch up. with At the moment our technology is more advanced, but other countries are catching up with us.2 CATCHto come from behind and reach someone in front of you by going faster with Drive faster – they’re catching up with us.catch somebody up British English You go on ahead. I’ll catch you up in a minute.3 NOWto do what needs to be done because you have not been able to do it until now on I have some work to catch up on. I need to catch up on some sleep (=after a period without enough sleep).4 to spend time finding out what has been happening while you have been away or during the time you have not seen someone on When I got home I phoned Jo to catch up on all the gossip. I’ll leave you two alone – I’m sure you’ve got a lot of catching up to do.5 be/get caught up in somethingTAKE PART/BE INVOLVED to be or get involved in something, especially something bad I didn’t want to get caught up in endless petty arguments. → catch→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
catch up• If you miss a lot of school, it will be very difficult to catch up.• The other players in the team are better than me, but I'm slowly catching them up.• We need to start cycling faster or we'll never catch up.• Although she had never studied German before, Jane soon caught up with the others.• The police car caught up with the stolen van after a long chase.• Go on ahead. I'll catch up with you later.catch with• So let's catch up with all the action as we go spinning the globe.• Agents finally caught up with Danvers in Mexico City.• The dinner was a pleasant opportunity for members to catch up with each other's news.• I wanted to catch up with him.• And I would have to hurry to catch up with it.• Latecomers hurriedly kneel and bow, trying to catch up with the group prayer in progress.• From the blurred picture you can see the vital point when the clubhead is catching up with the hands.• The U.S. spent a lot of money trying to catch up with the Soviet Union in space exploration.• It is a day for household chores, for cleaning and scrubbing, or to catch up with their religious studies.catch with• So let's catch up with all the action as we go spinning the globe.• The dinner was a pleasant opportunity for members to catch up with each other's news.• I wanted to catch up with him.• And I would have to hurry to catch up with it.• Latecomers hurriedly kneel and bow, trying to catch up with the group prayer in progress.• From the blurred picture you can see the vital point when the clubhead is catching up with the hands.• It is a day for household chores, for cleaning and scrubbing, or to catch up with their religious studies.catch on• Many slump into seats, some catching up on a little sleep before the day begins.• Britain's Ellen MacArthur, in second place, reported that she had been catching up on a lot of lost sleep.• Although the commute takes 80 minutes by mass transit, he uses the time to catch up on his reading.• We were rescued by Truc who had again been trying to catch up on his sleep farther down the open carriage.• To catch up on news and gossip.• Well Zoe Muir decided to catch up on the progress of our other volunteer, Katy Clark.• Already, statistics were catching up on them.• This is a time to catch up on urgent paperwork and swap stories with colleagues about the events of the day.catch on• Many slump into seats, some catching up on a little sleep before the day begins.• Britain's Ellen MacArthur, in second place, reported that she had been catching up on a lot of lost sleep.• Although the commute takes 80 minutes by mass transit, he uses the time to catch up on his reading.• We were rescued by Truc who had again been trying to catch up on his sleep farther down the open carriage.• To catch up on news and gossip.• Well Zoe Muir decided to catch up on the progress of our other volunteer, Katy Clark.• Already, statistics were catching up on them.• This is a time to catch up on urgent paperwork and swap stories with colleagues about the events of the day.be/get caught up in something• When this is augmented by oddly tangential keyboard sounds it's an enjoyable little maelstrom to be caught up in.• Rather than just evolving in a gradual, uniform manner, the earth may actually be caught up in a repeating cycle.• I am painfully aware of how we get caught up in our times and become contaminated by our own hypocrisy.• Kenetech got caught up in that.• I thought at one time it might be caught up in the Christmas post.• We get caught up in the commercial aspects of Christmas.• And that headdress would get caught up in the overhead wires, you silly boy.• Landowners who get caught up in this bureaucratic runaround receive no compensation for their economic loss as a result of wetland determination.• Some of these girls get caught up in this freedom idea. 