See catch on in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
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"text": "Every other man in town might have walked over that plank, and it wouldn't gin away. I walked over that plank last night, and airly this morning. I see, when I stepped on to it, that somebody had been a movin' on it; but I didn't know the 'tother eend was only just ketched on to the rock.",
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"text": "For ectozoic dispersal the disseminule is commonly adhesive by means of a sticky surface or, more often, by its possession of hooks or other devices by which it catches on to the fur etc. Anyone who has tried to extract the fruits of Burdocks (Arctium spp.) or Beggar-ticks (Bides spp.) from woolly garments will be aware of the effectiveness of such adhesion.",
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"text": "When we stand by the fireplace at Arrows, it's not hard to imagine the ancestor of our farm standing around an iron pot and tending the well-kept fire, taking in the aromas of cooking that filled the room. They waited for the pot roast to \"catch on,\" sticking to the pot just enough to brown, giving the gravy a richness and a savory flavor that coats the lips.",
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"text": "Various opinions have been expressed as to the reason why American bicycles did not attract popular favour in this country. They were largely advertised, important firms rented expensive shops for retail purposes, and at one time it looked as though the American bicycle would catch on. The attempted invasion failed; a small army reached our shores but it got swallowed up and the officers retired with discomfiture.",
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"text": "But those who attack violists shouldn't throw resin. Once the ergonomic viola catches on what instrument will be immune?",
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"ref": "1883 January 16, The Cincinnati Enquirer, volume XLI, number 16, Cincinnati, Oh.: [Faran & McLean], →ISSN, →OCLC, page 4, column 1:",
"text": "The Chicago papers are quick to \"catch on\" to a fire sensation and make the most of it. […] The first news received in Cincinnati of the fire in the Planters' House in St. Louis Sunday morning came from Chicago.",
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{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"lang_code": "fi",
"sense": "of food being cooked: to become stuck to the cooking vessel and brown or burn slightly",
"word": "tarttua"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"lang_code": "fi",
"sense": "of food being cooked: to become stuck to the cooking vessel and brown or burn slightly",
"word": "paahtua kiinni"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"lang_code": "fi",
"sense": "of an idea, a thing, etc.: to become fashionable or popular",
"word": "tarttua"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"lang_code": "fr",
"sense": "of an idea, a thing, etc.: to become fashionable or popular",
"word": "se répandre"
},
{
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"lang_code": "it",
"sense": "of an idea, a thing, etc.: to become fashionable or popular",
"word": "attecchire"
},
{
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"lang_code": "it",
"sense": "of an idea, a thing, etc.: to become fashionable or popular",
"word": "diffondersi"
},
{
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"lang_code": "it",
"sense": "of an idea, a thing, etc.: to become fashionable or popular",
"word": "prendere piede"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"lang_code": "pl",
"sense": "of an idea, a thing, etc.: to become fashionable or popular",
"tags": [
"imperfective"
],
"word": "przyjmować się"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"lang_code": "pl",
"sense": "of an idea, a thing, etc.: to become fashionable or popular",
"tags": [
"perfective"
],
"word": "przyjąć się"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"lang_code": "pl",
"sense": "of an idea, a thing, etc.: to become fashionable or popular",
"tags": [
"imperfective"
],
"word": "zatrybiać"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"lang_code": "pl",
"sense": "of an idea, a thing, etc.: to become fashionable or popular",
"tags": [
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],
"word": "zatrybić"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"lang_code": "es",
"sense": "of an idea, a thing, etc.: to become fashionable or popular",
"word": "calar"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"lang_code": "es",
"sense": "of an idea, a thing, etc.: to become fashionable or popular",
"word": "cuajar"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"lang_code": "es",
"sense": "of an idea, a thing, etc.: to become fashionable or popular",
"word": "diquelar"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"lang_code": "es",
"sense": "of an idea, a thing, etc.: to become fashionable or popular",
"word": "pegar"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"lang_code": "es",
"sense": "of an idea, a thing, etc.: to become fashionable or popular",
"word": "prosperar"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"lang_code": "fi",
"sense": "to recognize the potential of something",
"word": "tunnustaa"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"lang_code": "fi",
"sense": "to recognize the potential of something",
"word": "hyödyntää"
}
],
"word": "catch on"
}
Download raw JSONL data for catch on meaning in English (15.6kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-06-07 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-06-01 using wiktextract (e79dea5 and 7f4db16). 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.