catch on

Slang Dictionary

catch (sth) definition


  1. 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?
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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American Heritage
Idioms & Phrases

catch on

  1. Understand, as in Aunt Mary doesn't catch on to any jokes. The verb to catch alone was used with this meaning from Shakespeare's time, on being added in the late 1800s. Also see get it, def. 2.

  2. Become popular, as in This new dance is really beginning to catch on. [Late 1800s]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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