catch up1
1Succeed in reaching a person who is ahead of one: he stopped and waited for Lily to catch up...
- The poet hurried to catch up, and when he reached the river, he too stopped and looked around.
- She kept going further ahead and then turning to wait for them to catch up, as Matthew couldn't move very fast.
- She broke into a jog, trying to catch up to him before he reached the next piazza a hundred metres down.
Synonyms
draw level (with);
get to, come to, reach;
gain on, gain
1.1Do tasks which one should have done earlier: he normally used the afternoons to catch up on paperwork...
- Oh, and there's a backlog of domestic and business stuff to catch up on.
- I like having the place to myself, though I have a bunch of housework to catch up on.
- Public holidays are when I catch up on household chores and visit my ailing parents.
See parent entry: catch
catch-up2
(also catchup)
noun informal
An act of catching someone up in a particular activity.As a result, he'll be in catch-up mode at training camp - and he might be limited to one practice a day....
- This is not a good catch-up team, going against a defense that led the league with 49 takeways.
- In regard to his play in the secondary, Poteat has some upside potential because of his quickness and catch-up speed.
Phrases
play catch-up