catch a cold

catch a cold
   1. British
   to contract gonorrhoea
   Army use, punning on the meaning, to get yourself into trouble. Shakespeare may have had the same thing in mind when he wrote:
    A maid, and stuff d. There's goodly catching of cold. (Much Ado About Nothing)
   2. to have a trouser zip undone
   An oblique warning from one male to another, received by me on the quay at Destin, Florida, on a mild day in November 1987.
   3. to suffer a loss
   Normally as a speculator or gambler:
    The 1960s speculative bubble burst and while the rest of the world caught a cold, Japan got pneumonia. (Daily Telegraph, 5 December 1994)

How not to say what you mean: A dictionary of euphemisms. . 2014.

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Look at other dictionaries:

  • catch someone cold — catch (someone) cold American to surprise someone with an event, a question, or a piece of news they are not expecting. You caught me cold with this news I didn t know anything about it …   New idioms dictionary

  • catch a cold — (catch cold) be sick with a cold, come down with a cold    I caught a cold while we were in Vancouver …   English idioms

  • catch a cold — get a cold, come down with a cold, become infected with a cold …   English contemporary dictionary

  • catch a cold — become sick with a cold I caught a cold because of the rain and the cold weather …   Idioms and examples

  • catch a cold — verb to become infected with cold …   Wiktionary

  • catch a cold — informal encounter difficulties. → cold …   English new terms dictionary

  • catch a cold — vb to suffer a financial loss or setback. This expression, from business jargon, implies a temporary rather than termi nal affliction …   Contemporary slang

  • How to Catch a Cold — est un court métrage d animation réalisé par les studios Disney, sorti au cinéma le 1er août 1951[1]. C est un film éducationnel et publicitaire réalisé pour l International Cellucotton Company[1] et est considéré comme une Silly Symphony… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • catch — [kætʆ] verb caught PTandPP [kɔːt ǁ kɒːt] [transitive] 1. be caught in something to be in a situation that is difficult to escape from: • The government is caught in the middle of the dispute. • The yen was caught in a downward spiral. 2 …   Financial and business terms

  • catch cold — catch (someone) cold American to surprise someone with an event, a question, or a piece of news they are not expecting. You caught me cold with this news I didn t know anything about it …   New idioms dictionary

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