Word.ws English Dictionary

catch oneself on

UK/ˌkæt͡ʃ ˌwʌnsɛlf ˈɒn/US/ˌkɛt͡ʃ ˌwʌnsɛlf ˈɑn/

catch oneself on phrase: to cause (oneself) to get or regain a proper appreciation of a situation; to behave in the expected, sensible way; to stop fooling around or being silly.

Phrase

catch oneself on

  1. (imperative, informal, Ireland (especially Northern Ireland)) To cause (oneself) to get or regain a proper appreciation of a situation; to behave in the expected, sensible way; to stop fooling around or being silly.
    • Big Pat's still wearing his hair like two floppy ears on a dog. He's amazing: wouldn't you think his wife or someone would tell him to catch himself on.2011, Colin Neill, “Behind Every Man …”, in Turas: A Story of Strangers in a Strange Land, Kibworth Beauchamp, Leicester: Matador, Troubador Publishing, →ISBN, page 68

Origin of catch oneself on

See catch on.

Words that rhyme with catch oneself on

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about catch oneself on

What does catch oneself on mean?
Catch oneself on means to cause (oneself) to get or regain a proper appreciation of a situation; to behave in the expected, sensible way; to stop fooling around or being silly.
What part of speech is catch oneself on?
Catch oneself on is a phrase.
How do you pronounce catch oneself on?
Catch oneself on is pronounced /ˌkæt͡ʃ ˌwʌnsɛlf ˈɒn/ (UK).

Words near catch oneself on in the dictionary

  1. catch of the day
  2. catch on
  3. catch on fire
  4. catch one's breath
  5. catch one's death
  6. catch oneself on
  7. catch out
  8. catch phrase
  9. catch phrases
  10. catch pit
  11. catch pits

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: catch oneself on (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “catch oneself on.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/catch_oneself_on. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.