catch someone napping
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
To surprise someone who is unprepared or off guard
Literally: catch a person sleeping
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
They got off to a blinder against the Sharks … catching them napping repeatedly in the first period to put six past them.
But Springsteen wouldn't catch me napping again.
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 someone napping” mean?
To surprise someone who is unprepared or off guard Literally: catch a person sleeping
Is “catch someone napping” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.