to catch oneself
20
6.0
- phrasal verb
:
contenerse
- When I feel angry, I try to catch myself before I say something hurtful.
- catch myself thinking
Examples
-
His eyes stared ahead, and she caught herself wondering what he could possibly be thinking.
Fiction book (1990) -
Sometimes, after an outburst, Mom would catch herself and whisper words of remorse.
Fiction book (1996) -
And then you just catch yourself before you fall.
-
Make sure you catch yourself.
-
I catch myself thinking about it more and more.
-
See if you can catch yourself in the very act of doing or saying something.
-
Do you ever catch yourself feeling, thinking, or saying, "How many times have I told you...?"
Academic text (2005) -
I often catch myself not doing it, and then I try to do it.
Academic text (1999) -
And yet, at the same time, I caught myself thinking, "K's finally made it to the moon."
Fiction book (1996) -
Today I caught myself wishing you were in the bullpen with me.
Synonyms
1
6.1
Stop yourself from saying something you want to say because it would be rude
Antonyms
How Controlled
Surface Forms
Morphology
The verb 'catch' (to seize/notice) combined with the reflexive 'oneself' yields a directly related meaning of noticing or restraining one’s own action, so part of the MWE is compositional. However, the specific sense 'to stop oneself quickly, especially when about to say or do something one might regret' is a pragmatic extension (notice → inhibit) that may not be fully predictable to a B1 learner without contextual exposure. Cross-linguistic equivalents vary, so this is only partially transparent.
Etymology
The phrasal verb catch oneself comes from the image of grabbing your own body to stop a fall, with the action catch being done to oneself. So when someone catches themselves in speech it means they stop a word or action quickly, 'to stop oneself before saying or doing something one might regret'.