to catch someone at
14
4.2
- phrasal verb
:
encontrarse con
- "I'm so glad I caught you at home, Pamela."
- catch you at home
- caught him at his desk
- caught me looking at
Examples
-
I caught her at her office when she had a moment to talk.
Academic text (2010) -
Looks like Vincent and I caught you at breakfast, sorry 'bout that.
Fiction book (1994) -
We have to catch him at his hotel.
-
Right, catch him at work.
-
You can just catch him at the studio gate.
-
- We'll catch you at 6:00, bro.
-
In the meantime, you can catch him on Monday at the Franklin Park Reading Series.
Blog text (28) -
Couldn't I catch him at home some evening for a few minutes?
-
If you're quick you'll catch her at the station.
-
You can just catch him at the studio gate.
Synonyms
∞
1.0
To go to a place to greet someone when they arrive
122
1.8
To come together with friends to spend time
81
2.1
To get together with someone by arrangement to spend time
How Planned
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is partially compositional: 'catch' can be used colloquially to mean 'see' or 'meet' and the preposition 'at' clearly marks location, so a learner who knows these senses could infer 'meet someone at a place'. However, 'catch' has other literal senses (notice, seize) and the conversational use meaning 'meet' is somewhat idiomatic and not fully predictable without prior exposure, so it's not fully transparent.
Etymology
Catch someone at comes from the idea of catch meaning to find or stop someone and at showing the place; imagine catching someone in a busy station to speak to them. That's why it means 'to meet or arrange to meet someone at a particular place'.