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Glite Dictionary
to catch wind of

to catch wind of

7 5.4
Hear about something from other people before official news
  • phrasal verb
  • Informal
translation icon : enterarse de
  • I heard about the promotion before the official announcement; I caught wind of it through my coworkers.
  • media caught wind of
  • caught wind of his plans
  • people caught wind of

And, and, but then he caught wind of what was happening and he stepped in and shut that down, shut down the censorship.

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Examples

  • After they caught wind of the merger, the employees started speculating about their future.

  • If any new talking points arise, we will inform you as soon as we catch wind of them.

    Blog text (3)

  • Do you know how the media caught wind of this?

    Blog text (29)

  • The police caught wind of this.

    Blog text (13)

  • The media has caught wind of his pardon.

    Fiction book (1996)

  • That's how we caught wind of what happened.

    Trinity's Triumph (2023)

  • I assume they've caught wind of it.

    Blog text (24)

  • We caught wind of some raiding parties at interchanges here and here.

    The Lizzie McGuire Movie (2003)

  • When Czar Alexander of Russia caught wind of this secret agreement, he threw a pretty public tantrum.

  • When FetLife employees caught wind of the posts, they began removing usernames.

    Blog text (32)

Synonyms

to hear
vsto catch wind of
∞ 1.0

Find out about something often by chance

is specifically informal and indirect rather than general awareness
to get wind
vsto catch wind of
31 5.8

Hear about something by chance, not from official sources

is about informal or indirect awareness rather than official notice

How Aware

to learn
∞ 1.0
to find out
∞ 2.1
to catch wind of
  • Informal
7 5.4
to hear
∞ 1.0

Surface Forms

catch wind of infinitive
catching wind of present participle
catches wind of third person singular
caught wind of past
caught wind of past participle

Morphology

catch + wind + of

While 'catch' (to get/receive) provides a partly predictable component, 'wind' is used here metaphorically to mean 'rumor' or 'indirect information', which is not the prototypical meaning a B1 learner would infer from 'wind' (air). Because the phrase depends on this figurative extension and is not fully compositional or universally transparent across languages, learners who know the constituent words will often need prior exposure to derive the intended meaning.

Etymology

Catch wind of may come from the image of wind carrying a sound or smell to someone nearby, and a person who catches that clue by chance. So, catch wind of means 'to hear about' or 'become aware of' something without being told directly.