Word.ws English Dictionary

catch someone napping

catch someone napping verb: to take advantage of someone's inattention.

Verb

catch someone napping (third-person singular simple present catches someone napping, present participle catching someone napping, simple past and past participle caught someone napping)

  1. (idiomatic, informal) To take advantage of someone's inattention.
    • Wigan keeper Ali Al Habsi was forced to deny Stewart Downing and Bent in quick succession, and again got down well to deny Bent after a Young free-kick had caught Steven Caldwell napping.2011 January 25, Les Roopanarine, “Wigan 1 - 2 Aston Villa”, in BBC

catch someone napping meaning in Malayalam

catch someone napping in Malayalam

catch unawares, catch off guard, (take by) surprise
ഓർക്കാപ്പുറത്തു പിടികൂടപ്പെടുക, ഓർക്കാപ്പുറത്തു പിടിക്കപ്പെടുക, പ്രതീക്ഷിക്കാതിരിക്കുമ്പോൾ പിടികൂടുക, അപ്രതീക്ഷിതമായി സംഭവിക്കുക, അപ്രതീക്ഷിതമായി ചാടിവീഴുക, കെെയോടെ പിടിക്കുക

Forms of catch someone napping

third-person singular presentcatches someone napping
present participlecatching someone napping
past participlecaught someone napping
pastcaught someone napping

Questions about catch someone napping

What does catch someone napping mean?
Catch someone napping means to take advantage of someone's inattention.
What is catch someone napping in Malayalam?
Catch someone napping in Malayalam is ഓർക്കാപ്പുറത്തു പിടികൂടപ്പെടുക, ഓർക്കാപ്പുറത്തു പിടിക്കപ്പെടുക, പ്രതീക്ഷിക്കാതിരിക്കുമ്പോൾ പിടികൂടുക. See Catch someone napping meaning in Malayalam.
What part of speech is catch someone napping?
Catch someone napping is a verb.
What is the past tense of catch someone napping?
The past tense of catch someone napping is caught someone napping.

Words near catch someone napping in the dictionary

  1. catch sight of
  2. catch some rays
  3. catch some z's
  4. catch some zs
  5. catch someone at their own game
  6. catch someone napping
  7. catch someone with their pants down
  8. catch someone's drift
  9. catch someone's eye
  10. catch someone's fancy
  11. catch step

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: catch someone napping (page history and authors); catch someone napping (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license). 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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-catch someone napping.ogg.

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