catch (sb) up
— phrasal verb with catch uk/kætʃ/us/kætʃ/verb caught, caught
B2 to reach someone in front of you by going faster than them:
I ran after her and managed to catch up with her.
UK Go on to the shops without me, I'll catch you up.
More examples
- He's lagging behind a bit - I think we'd better wait for him to catch us up.
- The leader is about 50 yards ahead and I'd be amazed if the others can catch her up.
- There is still plenty of time in this race for our athlete to catch up.
- She only started walking a few minutes ago - you can easily catch her up.
- The others ran down the platform and then waited impatiently for me to catch them up, with all the luggage.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Increasing and decreasing speed of motion
- accelerant
- accelerate
- acceleration
- catch
- decelerate
- downshift
- foot
- gather
- gun
- motor
- retard
- retardation
- slacken
- slow
- slow (sb/sth) down/up
- sped
- speed
- throttle
- throttle (sth) back/down
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