catch fire
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
become suddenly popular or successful
Literally: flames igniting
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
ELEVEN people were treated for the effects of fumes after a truckload of chemicals caught fire yesterday at the M62-A1 junction in West Yorks.
Fortunately it was a metal one, and the oil had not caught fire.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “catch fire” mean?
become suddenly popular or successful Literally: flames igniting
Is “catch fire” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.