catch something

catch

1. verb To see, and perhaps apprehend, someone in the act of doing something (often something nefarious). The robbers were arrested when the police caught them looting another house. I don't watch to catch you kids doing this ever again—the tool shed is far too dangerous to play in!
2. verb, slang To see or hear a specific program or event, typically as broadcast on the TV or radio. Did you catch the game last night? What a crazy ending!
3. verb To hear and/or understand something that has been said. I'm sorry, I didn't catch that last part. Can you repeat it?
4. verb To contract a contagious illness. All of my students are sick right now, so I'm not surprised that I've caught a cold, too. With the way you've been sneezing all day, I really hope I don't catch what you have!
5. verb To encounter or meet with someone, typically for the purpose of communicating with them. This usage often suggests that the person is busy or rushed, and therefore may have limited availability. Hey, I'm glad I caught you—how's your mom doing? Peg has to sign off on your expense report, so be sure to catch her before she leaves the office. I'll catch you later, man.
6. verb To receive a punishment or reprimand. The phrase "catch it" is usually used for this usage. If I get home past curfew again, I'm really going to catch it from my parents!
7. verb To notice a problem, error, or inconsistency, often one that is inconspicuous. Oh, Jen caught that spelling error—I never even noticed it.
8. verb To notice or detect something. Did you catch the joke at the beginning of the movie? It was pretty subtle. I opened the window and caught a whiff of dinner cooking next door.
9. verb In baseball or softball, to play the position of catcher. Joe is sick, so we need someone else to catch tonight.
10. verb To reach a mode of transportation before it departs. Of course we hit a major traffic jam when I have a plane to catch! Oh, she did catch the bus—the driver saw her running and waited for her.
11. verb To stop oneself from doing something. In this usage, "catch" is followed by a reflexive pronoun. Bill tripped over the step but managed to catch himself on the railing before falling. I almost asked about her boyfriend when I caught myself, remembering that they had broken up.
12. noun A game in which two or more people throw a ball back and forth between them. Now that the weather is nice, you boys should go outside and play catch.
13. noun A problem, drawback, or hidden detriment, often one that is initially concealed as a means of entrapment. I know this sounds like a great job offer, but there's a pretty big catch—I'd have to move across the country. Why are you selling this for so little? What's the catch?
14. noun An audible break or hesitation in one's voice (typically when one is very emotional). When I heard the catch in her voice, I knew my mom had bad news for me.
15. noun An amount of something that has been caught or captured, such as while fishing. A: "What was your catch today, boys?" B: "Not great, Earl—only five fish."
16. noun The identification or recognition of a problem, error, or inconsistency, often one that is inconspicuous. I never would have noticed that spelling error—good catch!
17. noun An ideal suitor or prospective mate. Tom's a good-looking guy with a six-figure income—he's a real catch!
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

catch something

tv. to see or listen to something. (More specific than the colloquial sense, to manage to hear something.) Did you catch that radio program about cancer last night?
See also: catch, something
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions
See also:
  • catch
  • catch (one) (doing something)
  • catch it
  • catch somebody in the act
  • caught in the act
  • catch (one) in the act
  • catch in the act
  • catch (one) in the act of (doing something)
  • dogg
  • dogs
References in classic literature
I catch something of the spirit, I think, which caught your father, Mr.
The Vanished Messenger
He rubbed his face with his handkerchief, and wrapping round him his coat, which sat extremely well as it was, he greeted them with a smile, holding out his hand to Stepan Arkadyevitch, as though he wanted to catch something.
Anna Karenina
One evening he asked whether he might go home with her; but his aunt was afraid that he might catch something, and his uncle said that evil communications corrupted good manners.
Of Human Bondage
People who ain't content to stay home always catch something."
Anne of The Island
His eyes suddenly seemed to catch something in one of them, "The Westminster Gazette", I knew it by the color, and he grew quite white.
Dracula
At other times watching from the observatory of some cliff or tree, to telegraph any new arrival; or waiting at evening on the hill-tops for the sky to fall, that I might catch something, though I never caught much, and that, manna-wise, would dissolve again in the sun.
Walden & on the Duty of Civil Disobedience
But as I did so my foot slipped, I tried to catch something to hold by, but found nothing, and with a cry, down I fell, like a very big plum on the grass below.
An Old Fashioned Girl
But casting the line to catch something for the dinner table from the Pasig River may not yet be a safe option according to the PRRC.
Pasig River slowly being nursed to rehabilitation as fishes thrive
THEY say hospitals are the worst places to be when you are sick - because you might catch something else.
Irish wards must heed TB danger; COMMENT 2nd floor, 9A Beckett Way, Park West Industrial Park, Clondalkin, Dublin 12 Tel: 01 868 8600, Fax 01 868 8626, irishmirror.ie
Another CCTV camera supposedly from outside the shop shows him standing under a building and looking up with his hands raised as if waiting to catch something. That is when more people gather on the street and soon a child is seen dropping from the building right into his arms.
Video: Alert salesman catches child falling from second floor
"I didn't learn of my capture until the next morning and my reaction was 'Oh, my God, did I really catch something?' "I have been told that this ghost could be the witch Jenny Greenteeth, who has been known to haunt the cemetery.
Tourist captures cemetery 'ghost' on camera
"There were bodies everywhere, and that is what is worrying, if people are so close together, and being sick, it makes it easier to catch something.
Hospital: Our top priority is quality care
LINE OF THE DAY The Motherwell squad has been hit by a virus, proving to Cammy Bell that it IS possible to catch something at Fir Park.
BOOTROOM
She could always hunt and catch something to eat when she goes out the doggy door a[bar].
How To Survive The Airport At Christmas