to catch up
389
2.7
- phrasal verb
- /kæʧ ʌp/
:
ponerse al día
- In this way, the student would begin to catch up to the overall performance level of other students.
- catch up to peers
- catch up academically
- catch up to grade level
It was I'm like catching up a little bit.
- It was I'm like catching up a little bit.
- Yet your income has not caught up to the rate of inflation.
- Our instincts have not caught up to institutional production.
- Let's hope that we catch up to them on that one very soon.
- Can we bank sleep or catch up on lost sleep?
- Well, you have to catch up by Sunday, but the finale Sunday.
- It's winter and they they catch up a bit over time.
- But I also think that the Times caught up to Jerry Brown in two senses.
Examples
-
Let's hope that we catch up to them on that one very soon.
-
He couldn't catch up with me.
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So today we took the day to catch up on work all morning long.
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I have a lot of things to catch up on right here.
-
You need to stop class and get students caught up if they missed a step.
Academic text (2012) -
I'm not too good at algebra, but I think I might be able to help him catch up.
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Oh, hey, look, I've got to catch up on some work on Saturday.
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Why, a few weeks of private lessons, and she'll catch up in time for the Christmas recital.
Fiction book (1990) -
The company has made giant strides, but has not yet caught up with its toughest competitors.
Academic text (2011) -
I need to catch up on my assignments before the deadline arrives.
Synonyms
28
3.2
To do work you missed after being away to reach the same level as others
Antonyms
How Level
Surface Forms
Morphology
catch + up
The meaning 'to talk to someone after a period of time to exchange news' is not directly derivable from the literal senses of 'catch' (to seize) and 'up' (direction), since it describes a conversational/temporal activity rather than a physical action. It is partially motivated—the idea of 'bringing someone up to date' or 'reaching the same point' connects to the constituents and many languages have similar idioms—so learners may sometimes infer it but it is not fully predictable.
Etymology
Catch up comes from a simple picture: imagine a runner who is behind and then catches the others and comes up level with them. So, catch up means 'to reach the same standard or position after being behind'.