Oscar stopped the horses and waved to Carl, who caught up his hat and ran through the melon patch to join them.1913, Willa Cather, O Pioneers!, chapter 3:
2
To entangle (something).
Chiefly passive voice
The speaker wires have got caught up with the wires from the lights.
3
Broadly To involve in (something); to embroil.
Chiefly passive voice
That's why she got caught up in addiction.
4
To be brought up to date with news.
I hadn't seen her for so long. It was great to catch up.
5
To bring (someone) up to date with the news.
After Alice's vacation, her boss caught her up on policy changes.
I have to miss the end of the meeting, but you can catch me up later.
6
Ambitransitive To reach something that had been ahead.
Rose was three seconds behind, but managed to catch up with the race leader and eventually won.
I'll go ahead and you can catch up with me later.
2 more examples
I'll go ahead and you can catch me up later.
But you run / And you run to catch up with the sun / But it's sinking1973 March 1, Roger Waters, “Time”, in The Dark Side of the Moon, performed by Pink Floyd:
7
To compensate for or make up a deficiency.
After a slow start, they've been catching up lately.
The sales quarter ends soon and we've got to try to catch up.
8
Of some inevitable phenomenon, With with To finally overtake (someone or something) after a long period of approaching (them or it).
His years of drinking were catching up with him.
You are reminded that old age is catching up with you each time you read in the newspaper that another athlete whom you idolized when you were young just passed away.2008, Bardas Benetbunk, Musings of One Thousand and One Nights of Solitude, page 61:
1 more example
The episode begins with a lifetime of junk food, beer and no exercise catching up with Homer in the form of painful heart contractions.2012 June 17, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “Homer’s Triple Bypass” (season 4, episode 11; originally aired 12/17/1992)”, in The Onion AV Club:
catch-up
noun
CA, US, UK /ˈkæt͡ʃ.ʌp/ · CA, US /ˈkɛt͡ʃ.ʌp/
Etymology Deverbal from catch up.
1
An act of catching up or attempting to catch up.
Rapid expansion of Britain's transport network during the 'railway mania' of the 19th century meant that the testing of engineering principles often played catch-up to the ambitions of progress.2021 March 24, Dr. Joseph Brennan, “Metallic marvels from rail's Iron Age”, in RAIL, number 927, page 57:
2
An amount, a thing, or a receipt or repetition of information that enables one to catch up.
Catch-up is also available on the TV set using Digitial^([sic]) TV Services: BT Vision offers BBC, ITV, 40D and Demand 5 via the TV Replay service.2006, James Watson, Anne Hill, Dictionary of Media and Communication Studies, page 303:
They have shown their staying power before and it would be daft to write them off but it must be disturbing, nonetheless, for Mourinho that his team are five points behind already and locked in a game of catch-up against the side that has just subjected them to a rare, old-fashioned beating.2015 August 16, Daniel Taylor, The Guardian: