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Glite Dictionary
to catch a body

to catch a body

1 9.9
To find a dead person, often during police work or as slang for killing someone
  • idiom
  • Offensive
translation icon : encontrar un cadáver
  • The police were shocked to catch a body in the river.

Examples

  • In many crime novels, the story begins when police catch a body under mysterious circumstances.

  • Rumors spread quickly after someone claimed to have caught a body in the alley last night.

  • The detective was determined to catch a body before the suspect could flee the city.

  • Did they really catch a body last night?

  • The detective was shocked to realize that the suspect had caught a body during the investigation.

  • During the infamous gang war, many were involved in catching bodies, sparking outrage in the community.

  • He told his friends he was ready to catch a body if it meant standing up for what he believed in.

Surface Forms

catch a body infinitive
catching a body present participle
catches a body third person singular
caught a body past
caught a body past participle

Morphology

catch + a + body

The constituents 'catch' (to seize or find) and 'body' (a dead person) give a partial, literal clue that could lead a learner to infer 'find a dead person.' However, the phrase is colloquial/slang with idiomatic and violent connotations (sometimes implying involvement in a killing) and is not a standard compositional collocation, so the exact meaning is not fully predictable to a B1 learner.

Etymology

Catch a body comes from police slang: the verb catch meant 'to find' or 'seize' and body meant a dead person, so people pictured an officer suddenly finding a dead person. That's why it now means 'to find a dead person' and can also be slang for 'to be involved in a killing'.