9 Idioms with CATCH

9 Idioms with CATCH

Hello English learners. Welcome to a new lesson. We will learn 9 idioms with CATCH.

1. Catch your breath
2. Catch 22
3. It takes a thief to catch a thief
4. You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar
5. The early bird catches the worm
6. Catch someone red-handed
7. Caught between a rock and a hard place
8. Be/get caught in the middle
9. Catch you later

Catch your breath

Meaning: to stop doing an activity to start breathing normally.

• After the finish line, he finally stopped to catch his breath.
• While she was walking up the street, Mary had to stop a couple of times to catch her breath.

Catch 22

Meaning: it is a paradoxical situation in which you can not do either of two possibilities unless you’ve done the other one first.

• It’s a catch 22 situation. They won’t hire you if you don’t have work experience and you can’t have work experience unless they hire you.
• Nobody will financially support you until you’re successful and you can’t be successful without support. It’s a catch 22 situation.

Idioms with CATCH

It takes a thief to catch a thief

Meaning: only a dishonest person may know what another dishonest person is up to.

• Berry will help us find those criminals because he’s one of them. You see, it takes a thief to catch a thief.
• Being a bank robber himself, it was easy for him to assume what the gang’s next move could be. It takes a thief to catch a thief, he said to himself.

You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar

This proverb reminds us that it is more effective to be polite than impolite if we want to achieve something.

• If you really want to get them let you stay in their cottage during the summer, you should be nice to them. Don’t you know that you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar?
• My mother’s always taught me that you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. And it works for me!

The early bird catches the worm

This saying advises us to try to do things sooner if we want to be successful.

• The number of tickets for the concert is limited, so you better hurry if you want to get one. The early bird catches the worm!
• I have so many things to do tomorrow. I’d better get up early. The early bird catches the worm!

Idioms with CATCH

Catch someone red-handed

This idiom means to discover someone while they are doing something illegal or wrong.

• An employee in the supermarket caught him red-handed stealing money from the till.
• Sarah caught her husband red-handed. He was holding hands with another woman.

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Caught between a rock and a hard place

Meaning: if you are caught between a rock and a hard place, then you have to choose between two equally bad options.

• These refugees are caught between a rock and a hard place. They can’t stay here and they can’t go back to the country of their origin.
• My two friends had a big argument. I don’t want to be a part of it. I’m caught between a rock and a hard place.

Be/get caught in the middle

If you are caught in the middle, then you are involved in a disagreement between two or more sides.

• When his parents divorced, he was caught in the middle because they both complained about each other.
• When Britain and France went to war in 1793, the U.S. got caught in the middle.

Catch you later

This is just a way of saying goodbye.

• I’ve got to go now. Catch you later!
• I’ll catch you later then, after work.

Idioms with CATCH