From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishcatch up with somebody phrasal verb1 CATCHto finally find someone who has been doing something illegal and punish them It took six years for the law to catch up with them.2 AVOIDif something bad from the past catches up with you, you cannot avoid dealing with it any longer At the end of the movie his murky past catches up with him. → catch→ See Verb table
