Having stopped once, a person has to catch up for a long time. It can be years, time, knowledge, opportunities, skills or the acquisition of good habits. This is often said about countries or their capitals after protracted wars, when they begin to rise from ruins. What is the meaning of the phrase, and how do many journalists, writers and simply educated people use it today?
Direct meaning
The expression “catch up” means replenishment of not acquired experience, skills, etc. in a timely manner. So, the word “catch up” itself can be replaced by a similar meaning of “catch up”. The phrase implies the use of great effort on the part of catching up something. Why? A simple example: runners on the same start from the same lane. They have an equal amount of strength, time and the distance required to overcome. But what if someone fell? Then he will have to make up for the time that he lost when he rose. And if an athlete missed training, then he would need to catch up with his rivals in strength, making even greater efforts.
Relationship between people
Everyone has a need to love and be loved. But often boys and girls who in childhood did not receive their share of parental love can feel its lack, as adults. There comes a time when they want to catch up.
Then they begin the pursuit of emotions: they can pour the entire supply of their feelings onto their life partner. Someone is worried that they will hurt and upset their spouse, while someone, on the contrary, seeks to annoy, as his parents did to each other or in relation to himself. Such situations happen quite often, but for many it ends with the realization of the attainability of their goals and the achievement of peace. Having caught up with what he was deprived of in childhood, a person returns to his rut. In such cases, the husband or wife, realizing that they have gone too far with the senses, stop aggressively catching up with the lack of love and continue calm, peaceful relations.
Make up for lost years
During the armed conflict, both sides have to throw forces to reproduce the resources that are needed to resolve their internal strife. After its end, as in the case of, for example, the Second World War, countries have to restore their economic, environmental, industrial, demographic position. This often takes decades. Moreover, journalists and writers habitually call the war itself “lost years” or “lost time” in the development of the state.
So, catching up can be lost not only by a person, but also countries, institutions, nature after a long stagnation or a long process of destruction. This always implies the application of certain efforts, which will certainly be needed to catch up with others in a particular field of activity. The phrase itself means that you will have to do everything at an accelerated pace, as runners try to catch up with their rivals, how a person tries to fill in the gap in their feelings, lost once in childhood, how countries rise from the ashes in order to recover and flourish again.