Word.ws English Dictionary

catches napping

catches napping is the third-person singular simple present indicative of catch napping.

Meaning of catch napping

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic, transitive) To surprise; to take advantage of the lack of watchfulness of.
    • 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...1907 January, Harold Bindloss, chapter 7, in The Dust of Conflict, 1st Canadian edition, Toronto, Ont.: McLeod & Allen, →OCLC

Questions about catches napping

What is catches napping the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Catches napping is the third-person singular simple present indicative of catch napping.

Words near catches napping in the dictionary

  1. catches in 4k
  2. catches in possession
  3. catches it
  4. catches it in the neck
  5. catches lacking
  6. catches napping
  7. catches of the day
  8. catches on
  9. catches on fire
  10. catches one's breath
  11. catches one's death

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: catches napping (page history and authors); catch napping (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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