catch a wave
Take advantage of an opportunity
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Where will you be? Anywhere UK & IrelandUnited StatesOnline slangBusiness jargon
catch air
to receive attention or publicity
catch and release
to arrest or detain someone and then immediately release them
catch as catch can
to take or deal with things as they come
catch big air
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
catch club
A member of the patch club; a bum bailiff.
catch dust
To be unused or neglected for a long time
catch fart
A footboy; so called from such servants commonly following close behind their master or mistress.
catch feelings
to develop emotional attachment or romantic feelings
catch fire
become suddenly popular or successful
catch flies
To catch someone off guard or unprepared
catch hands
to help or support someone
catch heat
Receive criticism or opposition
catch hell
Receive severe criticism or punishment
catch it
understand or hear something
catch napping
To surprise someone who is unprepared or off guard
Catch not at the shadow and lose the substance. (Strauss, 1998)
Don't prioritize a lesser benefit over a more important one
catch of the day
The most attractive or popular thing available at a particular time
catch on
become popular or understood
catch one's breath
to rest and recover after exertion
catch one's death
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
catch penny
Any temporary contrivance to raise a contribution on the public.
catch pole
A bum bailiff, or sheriff's officer.
catch red-handed
Caught in the act of doing something wrong
catch sight of
See something or someone briefly
catch some rays
to get some sunshine
catch some z's
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
catch someone napping
To surprise someone who is unprepared or off guard
catch someone's drift
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
catch someone's eye
attract someone's attention
catch the eye
Attract someone's attention
catch the sun
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
catch weights
A term in racing, wrestling or boxing, meaning without restrictions as to weight.
catch-penny
Any temporary contrivance to obtain money from the public; penny shows, or cheap exhibitions. Also descriptions of murders which have never taken place.
catch-’em-alive
A humane trap; also a small-tooth comb. A piece of paper smeared with a sweet sticky substance which is spread about where flies most abound, and in this sense not particularly humane. The CATCH-’EM-ALIVE trap for rats and other such animals is humane compared with the gin trap.
catchbet
A bet made for the purpose of entrapping the unwary by means of a paltry subterfuge. See CHERRY COLOUR.
catching harvest
A dangerous time for a robbery, when many persons are on the road, on account of a horse-race, fair, or some other public meeting.
catchy
(similar formation to touchy), inclined to take an undue advantage.
cater cap
A square cap or mortar-board. (Fr. quartier.
cater cousins
Good friends. He and I are not cater cousins, i.e. we are not even cousins in the fourth degree, or four times removed; that is, we have not the least friendly connexion.
caterpillar traction
This is a device for moving a heavy load over soft ground where wheels will sink. Round the wheels passes an endless band of linked plates which so forms a track along which the vehicle pro- gresses. The device is much used for agricul- tural vehicles and for tanks and other military vehicles.
caterwauling
Going out in the night in search of intrigues, like a cat in the gutters.
caterwauling
Applied derisively to inharmonious singing; also love-making, from the noise of cats similarly engaged.
catever
A queer, or singular affair; anything poor, or very bad. From the Lingua Franca, and Italian, CATTIVO, bad. Variously spelled by the lower orders.—See KERTEVER.
catharine-wheel window
A wheel-window, sometimes called a rose-window, with radiating divisions.
cathedral
Old-fashioned. An old cathedral-bedstead, chair, &c.
Catherine Wheel
The inventor of St. Catherine's Wheel, a diabolical machine consisting of four wheels turning different ways, and each wheel armed with saws, knives, and teeth, was killed by his own machine; for when St. Catherine was bound on the wheel, she fell off, and the machine flew to pieces. One of the pieces struck the inventor, and other pieces struck several of the men employed to work it, all of whom were killed. (Meta- phrastes.
Catholic Church
The entire body of Christians considered as a whole, as distin- guished from the Churches and sects into which it has divided. At the Reformation the Western Church was called by the Reformers the Roman Catholic Church, and the Estab- lished Church of England was called the "Protestant Church," or the "Reformed National Church." Many members of the Anglican Church still consider and call themselves Catholics.
Catholic Epistles
Those Epistles in the New Testament not addressed to any particular church or individual; the general epistles, viz. those of James, Peter, and Jude, and the first of John; 2 John is addressed to a "lady," and 3 John to Gaius, and these are usually included.
Catholic Roll
A document which English Roman Catholics were obliged to sign on taking their seats as Member of Parliament. It was abolished, and a single oath prescribed to all members by the 29, 30 Victoria, c. 19 (1866).
cathouse
A brothel.
Catiline's Conspiracy
Lucius Ser- gius Catilina, 64 B.C., conspired with a large number of dissolute young nobles to plunder the Roman treasury, extirpate the senate, and fire the capitol. Cicero, who was consul, got full information of the plot, and delivered his first Oration against Catiline November 8th, 63, whereupon Catiline quitted Rome. Next day Cicero delivered his second Oration, and several of the conspirators were arrested.
Catling Gun
An early form of automatic weapon invented in the U.S.A. in 1867. It had a large number of barrels, the projectiles in which could be discharged in rapid succession. It preceded all types of weapons constructed on the principle of discharging numerous pro- jectiles rapidly through the same barrel, as a machine gun.
Cato Street Conspiracy
A scheme enter- tained by Arthur Thistlewood (1770-1820) and other conspirators to overthrow the Govern- ment by assassinating the Cabinet Ministers (February 1820). So called from Cato Street (now Horace Street), Edgware Road, where their meetings were held.
cats and dogs
It is said to rain cats and dogs when a shower is exceptionally heavy. Probably in ridicule of the remarkable showers which used to find their way into the papers during the "silly season."
CATS below
It is probable that the custom of tormenting cats by the ignorant arose from their supposed connexion with witches.
cattle
Sad cattle: whores or gypsies. Black cattle, bugs. CANT.
cattle
A term of contempt applied to the mob, or to a lot of lazy, helpless servants.
cattle call
An audition where many people are seen briefly
catty
A catapult.
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