Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[rayt]

Please advise me of meanings to �play catch-up� below respectively. Thank you very much.


A.
The competition will be playing catch-up for the rest of the season.

B.
I have been driving a rental car until yesterday, when my search for a replacement (used) car ended. I finally found one I would want to own, at a price I wanted to pay.

I ask that you please wait a while longer while I play catchup.

[redset]

Say you're walking with friends, and you stop to tie your shoes while your friends keep walking. When you've finished, you look up - and your friends are quite far away! You then have to catch up to them. This means you have to put in more effort (like walking faster, or even running), or hope they do something which helps you (like pausing to wait for you).

In competition the idea of 'playing catch-up' means you're at a disadvantage, you're behind everyone else or losing, and need to work harder to reach the same level. A team which loses several games will need to win a lot more just to catch up with everyone else. Someone who misses a few classes at school will be behind with their work, and won't understand what's being taught - they'll need to catch up so they've done the same work everyone else has, and so they've learned everything they're supposed to have learned. People will sometimes catch up with TV shows they've missed, or call someone to catch up (to see how they are and find out what's been happening in that person's life).

That should make A clear, B on the other hand sounds a bit strange. I assume the speaker is saying "I don't have my own car yet, but I've finally found one I'm happy to buy, so please be patient", but 'playing catch-up' doesn't really make sense here. Perhaps they're trying to plan something where everyone needs their own car, and they're waiting for the speaker to finally get one? I don't know, it sounds odd to me.