"catch napping" meaning in English

See catch napping in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Audio: en-au-catch napping.ogg [Australia] Forms: catches napping [present, singular, third-person], catching napping [participle, present], caught napping [participle, past], caught napping [past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|catch<,,caught> napping}} catch napping (third-person singular simple present catches napping, present participle catching napping, simple past and past participle caught napping)
  1. (transitive, idiomatic) To surprise; to take advantage of the lack of watchfulness of. Tags: idiomatic, transitive Translations (to surprise): prendre au dépourvu (French), prendre de court (French), prendre sans vert (French), rajtakap (Hungarian), lebuktat (Hungarian), meglep (Hungarian), kihasználja a figyelmetlenségét/óvatlanságát (Hungarian)
    Sense id: en-catch_napping-en-verb-PmikAawV Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header

Download JSON data for catch napping meaning in English (2.8kB)

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "catches napping",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "catching napping",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "caught napping",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "caught napping",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "catch<,,caught> napping"
      },
      "expansion": "catch napping (third-person singular simple present catches napping, present participle catching napping, simple past and past participle caught napping)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2019 February 10, Phil McNulty, “Manchester City 6-0 Chelsea”, in BBC Sport",
          "text": "The rout started after four minutes when Chelsea were caught napping by Kevin De Bruyne's quick free-kick which left Raheem Sterling to fire in at the far post before Aguero, who had already missed an open goal, curled a magnificent right-foot finish past the stretching Kepa Arrizabalaga from 25 yards.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1907, Harold Bindloss, chapter 7, in The Dust of Conflict",
          "text": "Still, a dozen men with rifles, and cartridges to match, stayed behind when they filed through a white aldea lying silent amid the cane, and the Sin Verguenza swung into slightly quicker stride. If the Colonel Morales was to be caught at all he must be caught napping, and, as they knew, he usually slept with one eye open.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To surprise; to take advantage of the lack of watchfulness of."
      ],
      "id": "en-catch_napping-en-verb-PmikAawV",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive, idiomatic) To surprise; to take advantage of the lack of watchfulness of."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "transitive"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "to surprise",
          "word": "prendre au dépourvu"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "to surprise",
          "word": "prendre de court"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "to surprise",
          "word": "prendre sans vert"
        },
        {
          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "sense": "to surprise",
          "word": "rajtakap"
        },
        {
          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "sense": "to surprise",
          "word": "lebuktat"
        },
        {
          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "sense": "to surprise",
          "word": "meglep"
        },
        {
          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "sense": "to surprise",
          "word": "kihasználja a figyelmetlenségét/óvatlanságát"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-catch napping.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/c/c8/En-au-catch_napping.ogg/En-au-catch_napping.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c8/En-au-catch_napping.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "catch napping"
}
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "catches napping",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "catching napping",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "caught napping",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "caught napping",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "catch<,,caught> napping"
      },
      "expansion": "catch napping (third-person singular simple present catches napping, present participle catching napping, simple past and past participle caught napping)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with audio links",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English transitive verbs",
        "English verbs"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2019 February 10, Phil McNulty, “Manchester City 6-0 Chelsea”, in BBC Sport",
          "text": "The rout started after four minutes when Chelsea were caught napping by Kevin De Bruyne's quick free-kick which left Raheem Sterling to fire in at the far post before Aguero, who had already missed an open goal, curled a magnificent right-foot finish past the stretching Kepa Arrizabalaga from 25 yards.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1907, Harold Bindloss, chapter 7, in The Dust of Conflict",
          "text": "Still, a dozen men with rifles, and cartridges to match, stayed behind when they filed through a white aldea lying silent amid the cane, and the Sin Verguenza swung into slightly quicker stride. If the Colonel Morales was to be caught at all he must be caught napping, and, as they knew, he usually slept with one eye open.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To surprise; to take advantage of the lack of watchfulness of."
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive, idiomatic) To surprise; to take advantage of the lack of watchfulness of."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "transitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-catch napping.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/c/c8/En-au-catch_napping.ogg/En-au-catch_napping.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c8/En-au-catch_napping.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "to surprise",
      "word": "prendre au dépourvu"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "to surprise",
      "word": "prendre de court"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "to surprise",
      "word": "prendre sans vert"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "to surprise",
      "word": "rajtakap"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "to surprise",
      "word": "lebuktat"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "to surprise",
      "word": "meglep"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "to surprise",
      "word": "kihasználja a figyelmetlenségét/óvatlanságát"
    }
  ],
  "word": "catch napping"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-26 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (93a6c53 and 21a9316). 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.

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