catch on
Britishverb
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to become popular or fashionable
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to grasp mentally; understand
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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.
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Become popular, as in This new dance is really beginning to catch on . [Late 1800s]
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Salt, who comes into the IPL after a quiet T20 World Cup, did take a sensational diving catch on the deep cover boundary in Sunrisers' 201-9.
From BBC • Mar. 28, 2026
Eventually even people around Clark Kent have to catch on: This guy might not walk around like he’s a superhero, but he is one.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 15, 2026
But the coins are starting to catch on among some crypto users as a way to park money and earn yields—a development that banks are determined to stamp out before it gets any bigger.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 5, 2026
But even if these other applications catch on, Saluzzi said, there is no reason to expect their adoption would be a boon for bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies.
From MarketWatch • Feb. 5, 2026
But they are much faster, flying through the underbrush so gracefully as my boots catch on roots and fallen tree limbs, that there's no way I can keep apace with them.
From "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
