How to Use play catch-up in a Sentence

play catch-up

idiom
  • And the rest of us were always trying to play catch-up with him.
    Ed Masley, The Arizona Republic, 25 May 2021
  • The agreement with Lucid could help the brand play catch-up.
    Julia Malleck, Quartz, 26 June 2023
  • As such, some traders say next week could see the US market play catch-up.
    WSJ, 13 Oct. 2023
  • So the Fed has had to play catch-up with a series of sharp rate increases.
    Paul Wiseman, BostonGlobe.com, 17 Aug. 2022
  • They just got eaten up and fell way too far behind to play catch-up.
    Brad Biggs, Chicago Tribune, 9 Dec. 2024
  • But Patrick Mahomes can sling it, and that will put pressure on Matt Ryan to play catch-up.
    Los Angeles Times, 25 Dec. 2020
  • Thompson returned an on-side kick 7 yards for a score as the Rattlers tried to play catch-up.
    Richard Obert, The Arizona Republic, 8 Apr. 2023
  • Boston controlled most of the first half but missed its first seven shots to start the second half and was forced to play catch-up.
    courant.com, 27 Dec. 2020
  • Crews often are stuck having to play catch-up on routes missed earlier in the week.
    Talia Richman, baltimoresun.com, 19 Aug. 2020
  • This is the latest in a string of updates in which Twitch has had to play catch-up with the platform’s more risqué content creators.
    Ash Parrish, The Verge, 27 Mar. 2024
  • In a broad sense, Apple is more than happy to play catch-up in certain areas.
    Yoni Heisler, BGR, 18 Nov. 2021
  • Still, China has made impressive gains over the past four decades and continues to play catch-up with the U.S. Navy.
    Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, 3 Sep. 2020
  • In a typical spring, the teams from Northeast Ohio would struggle with the awful weather that plagues the area and would be forced to play catch-up with the rest of the state.
    Joe Magill, cleveland, 16 Apr. 2021
  • The defense’s deficiencies put the onus on the offense to play catch-up, and that left little room for error.
    Randy Johnson, Star Tribune, 26 Oct. 2020
  • Many analysts felt the need to play catch-up, increasing their stock price targets.
    Georg Szalai, The Hollywood Reporter, 24 Jan. 2024
  • By comparison, La Niña winters tend to have more snow in the first half of winter before El Niños play catch-up.
    Ian Livingston, Washington Post, 7 Feb. 2024
  • Demand has been so strong that Ford stopped taking orders last year to play catch-up on production.
    Dallas News, 21 Jan. 2023
  • Refineries, which turn crude oil into fuels that can be used in cars and trucks, have tried to play catch-up on both sides of the Atlantic in recent months.
    New York Times, 31 Mar. 2022
  • The Fed now must play catch-up, even with the risk of pushing the economy into a significant slowdown.
    Phillip Molnar, San Diego Union-Tribune, 24 June 2022
  • Intel’s partnership with AWS is part of the chipmaker’s attempt to play catch-up.
    Ramishah Maruf, CNN, 16 Sep. 2024
  • Opponents often outplayed the Stars early in games, forcing them to play catch-up.
    Kevin Sherrington, Dallas News, 1 June 2023
  • The stock market’s steady rally is forcing even bullish market forecasters to play catch-up and raise their targets.
    Jesse Pound, CNBC, 11 July 2024
  • The county then had to play catch-up, working to get front-end loaders and dump trucks up the mountain as well as secure specialty drivers, Rowe said.
    Grace Toohey, Los Angeles Times, 16 Nov. 2023
  • The situation looks especially dire since there’s no time to play catch-up.
    Rachel Chang, Condé Nast Traveler, 4 Aug. 2023
  • But as those projects dragged, units remained vacant and conditions got even worse, with DCHA now trying to play catch-up to prepare hundreds of them for move-ins.
    Meagan Flynn, Washington Post, 26 Apr. 2023
  • Fiction, as always, will have to play catch-up, which is what Thomas Grattan’s career now seems splendidly to be doing.
    Thomas Mallon, The New Yorker, 12 Apr. 2021
  • The Eagles expanded their lead on second-period power-play goals from Kaut and Sherwood and the Gulls were left scrambling to play catch-up from that point on.
    Ivan Carter, San Diego Union-Tribune, 26 Jan. 2022
  • Losing OTAs, offseason workouts and preseason games due to the pandemic will force the rookie class to play catch-up.
    Edgar Thompson, orlandosentinel.com, 5 Sep. 2020
  • The Bulls shot only 39% from the floor during the opening quarter, allowing the Rockets to take the double-digit advantage and forcing them to play catch-up.
    Julia Poe, Chicago Tribune, 11 Mar. 2023
  • Years of red tape, underinvestment in modernizing infrastructure, and climbing costs have left the country to play catch-up with other advanced economies.
    Samuel Burke, Fortune Europe, 29 Oct. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'play catch-up.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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