"catch on fire" meaning in English

See catch on fire in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Forms: catches on fire [present, singular, third-person], catching on fire [participle, present], caught on fire [participle, past], caught on fire [past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|<,,caught>|head=~on fire:~}} catch on fire (third-person singular simple present catches on fire, present participle catching on fire, simple past and past participle caught on fire)
  1. (informal, sometimes proscribed) Alternative form of catch fire. Tags: alt-of, alternative, informal, proscribed, sometimes Alternative form of: catch fire
    Sense id: en-catch_on_fire-en-verb-M2itquR8 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Fire

Inflected forms

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "catches on fire",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "catching on fire",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "caught on fire",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "caught on fire",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "<,,caught>",
        "head": "~on fire:~"
      },
      "expansion": "catch on fire (third-person singular simple present catches on fire, present participle catching on fire, simple past and past participle caught on fire)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "alt_of": [
        {
          "word": "catch fire"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Fire",
          "orig": "en:Fire",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Alternative form of catch fire."
      ],
      "id": "en-catch_on_fire-en-verb-M2itquR8",
      "links": [
        [
          "catch fire",
          "catch fire#English"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal, sometimes proscribed) Alternative form of catch fire."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "alt-of",
        "alternative",
        "informal",
        "proscribed",
        "sometimes"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "catch on fire"
}
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "catches on fire",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "catching on fire",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "caught on fire",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "caught on fire",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "<,,caught>",
        "head": "~on fire:~"
      },
      "expansion": "catch on fire (third-person singular simple present catches on fire, present participle catching on fire, simple past and past participle caught on fire)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "alt_of": [
        {
          "word": "catch fire"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English informal terms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English proscribed terms",
        "English verbs",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "en:Fire"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Alternative form of catch fire."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "catch fire",
          "catch fire#English"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal, sometimes proscribed) Alternative form of catch fire."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "alt-of",
        "alternative",
        "informal",
        "proscribed",
        "sometimes"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "catch on fire"
}

Download raw JSONL data for catch on fire meaning in English (1.1kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-05-23 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-05-01 using wiktextract (8336b26 and ae80fde). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.