play catch-up

idiom

: to try to reach the same position, score, etc., as a competitor after one has fallen behind

The team fell behind in the second inning and has had to play catch-up ever since.

The company has been trying to play a difficult game of catch-up ever since its competitor introduced the new product.

Examples of play catch-up in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

And that’s left Herbert exposed, having to play catch-up while running for his life. —Mirjam Swanson, Oc Register, 20 Oct. 2025

What’s remained is Cerebras’ insistence that its hardware outperforms graphics processing units, or GPUs, a market that Nvidia dominates but where Advanced Micro Devices is trying to play catch-up. —Jordan Novet, CNBC, 6 Oct. 2025

The point of Trump’s appearance appeared to be to play catch-up on some of what was missed over the summer, not just his attacks on late-night TV but also his claims to have ended wars while started new conflicts with Venezuela. —Ted Johnson, Deadline, 4 Oct. 2025

Science can only play catch-up, documenting the impacts long after the harm has occurred. —Literary Hub, 3 Oct. 2025

Rhymes for play catch-up

• buttercup
• backup
• blowup
• breakup
• buildup
• checkup
• cleanup
• holdup
• hookup
• lineup
• lockup
• makeup