0 to take hold of something, especially something that is moving through the air:
1 to find and stop a person or animal that is trying to escape:
figurative I can see you're busy right now, so I'll catch you (= speak to you) later.
They were happy because they had caught a lot of fish that day.
[ + -ing verb ] Two armed men were caught trying to cross the frontier at night.
Great pressure was put on the police to catch the terrorists as soon as possible.
2 to discover, see, or realize something, especially someone doing something wrong:
You won't catch Carla eating in a cheap restaurant, oh no.
You won't catch me at work after four o'clock.
He doesn't like to be caught without any biscuits in the house.
Her pictures caught my imagination.
If the virus is caught (= discovered) in time, most patients can be successfully treated.
[ + -ing verb ] He caught her reading his old love letters.
3 to travel or be able to travel on an aircraft, train, bus, etc.:
4 to get an illness, especially one caused by bacteria or a virus:
5 to manage to hear or see something, so you understand or remember it:
Here are some of the exhibitions you should catch this summer.
I couldn't catch what the announcer said, with all the other noise going on.
Fishing vessels came alongside and sold their catch.
I am momentarily caught off guard as my body attempts to adjust to the temperature of a room filled with thousands of dancing bodies.
Because of the delaying action of the stampeding herd, this too might allow an animal to be caught.
A few adjustments are made to catch some changes likely to occur.
Headphone listening is advised to catch the more subtle spatial characteristics of the sound designs.
The woman caught the attention of the publicist of the artists who was dressed for dinner.
Coverage and vaccine efficacy influences the number of cases at equilibrium whereas catch-up programmes do not.
At the end of each sampling session, all butterflies caught in the traps were identified, counted and released.
