Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- interjection Used to indicate understanding or to signal the fact of having caught or defeated another.
- noun A game or endeavor in which one party seeks to catch another out, as in a mistake or lie.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- phrase colloquial Got you; have you; as in
capture orapprehend . - phrase colloquial
Understand ;comprehend . - phrase colloquial Got you covered, got your back; when you have an advantage or responsibility over someone.
- phrase colloquial Got you back; as in after causing some form of retaliation or revenge against someone.
- phrase colloquial Got you by surprise; Exclamation indicating a successful
trick orprank . - phrase colloquial Got you by surprise; as in engineering or computer programming; typically an unintended consequence or problem caused by a small variation in areas such as command syntax, function definition, results application.
- noun colloquial A potential
problem or source oftrouble .
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Besides, the term "gotcha question" is so out of fashion.
Joan E. Dowlin: The Scariest Thing About the Sept. 12 GOP Debate Was the Audience Joan E. Dowlin 2011
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The Governor attacks what she calls gotcha journalism in her latest sit - down interview, a new interview.
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Some people are criticizing last night's presidential debate, including Barack Obama, who likened it to what he calls gotcha games.
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The governor supporters say that's partly because she's been a victim of what they call gotcha journalism, and they say working class voters are firmly behind her regardless.
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I think that part of what we call gotcha journalism today -- the idea that the function of a reporter is to catch an official in a lie, in a some kind of minor misfeasance -- is partly the result of Watergate.
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Newt Gingrich, whose candidacy has floundered, argued repeatedly with the debate panel over what he described as "gotcha" questions when his internal campaign problems and contradictory statements came up.
News - latimes.com 2011
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Newt Gingrich, whose candidacy has floundered, argued repeatedly with the debate panel over what he described as "gotcha" questions when his internal campaign problems and contradictory statements came up.
News - latimes.com 2011
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Your use of the word "gotcha" in mock irony suggests that bringing this up is a mere debating trick.
The Guardian World News Hadley Freeman 2011
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Newt Gingrich, whose candidacy has floundered, argued repeatedly with the debate panel over what he described as "gotcha" questions when his internal campaign problems and contradictory statements came up.
News - latimes.com 2011
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The possible gotcha is that your phone might be "Locked" to AT&T.
Cell Phones 2007
Comments
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