Word.ws English Dictionary

caught someone napping

caught someone napping is the simple past and past participle of catch someone napping.

Meaning of catch someone napping

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

Questions about caught someone napping

What is caught someone napping the simple past and past participle of?
Caught someone napping is the simple past and past participle of catch someone napping.

Words near caught someone napping in the dictionary

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

Source and license

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