Catch-phrase
a phrase that attracts or is meant to attract attention.
a phrase, as a slogan, that comes to be widely and repeatedly used, often with little of the original meaning remaining.
Contemporary Examples
For those wondering, this vanishing middle ground is where the book gets its catch-phrase title.
Welcome to Tyler Cowen’s Future of Genius Machines Robert Herritt September 16, 2013
“Mean Girls” is the catch-phrase du jour, with a new breed of “expert” looking to cash in.
What Makes Mean Girls Tick Jessica Bennett August 11, 2011
Historical Examples
When the Swiss invented a catch-phrase they did not drop it in a hurry.
William Tell Told Again P. G. Wodehouse
There was never a catch-phrase, “Have you seen the French President?”
If I May A. A. Milne
Simpson had mentioned the situation so many times that it had become a catch-phrase with us.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 146, April 1, 1914 Various
The reader is never allowed to forget the catch-phrase of Micawber or the moral look of Pecksniff.
Materials and Methods of Fiction Clayton Hamilton
noun
a well-known frequently used phrase, esp one associated with a particular group, etc
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- Catch red-handed
Also, catch in the act. Apprehend someone in the course of wrongdoing, as in The boys were trying to steal a car and the police caught them red-handed, or He tried to cheat on the exam, but his teacher walked in and caught him in the act. The first term referred to blood on a […]
- Sight
the power or faculty of seeing; perception of objects by use of the eyes; vision. an act, fact, or instance of seeing. one’s range of vision on some specific occasion: Land is in sight. a view; glimpse. mental perception or regard; judgment. something seen or worth seeing; spectacle: the sights of London. Informal. something unusual, […]
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catch someone with their pants down verb phrase To find someone in the wrong with no possibility of evasion; catch someone in flagrante delicto: Every time someone catches us with our pants down, catches us in an outright lie, up pops Ron to admit it/ The insensitive, bumbling male senators caught with their political pants […]