acquire vs catch up

acquire and catch up both are verbs.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
acquire	No	No	Yes	No
catch up	No	No	Yes	No

As verbs, catch up is a hyponym of acquire; that is, catch up is a word with a more specific, narrower meaning than acquire:

Other hyponyms of acquire include relearn, absorb, assimilate, ingest, take in, hit the books, study.

acquire (verb)	catch up (verb)
come to have or undergo a change of (physical features and attributes)	learn belatedly; find out about something after it happened
take on a certain form, attribute, or aspect	reach the point where one should be after a delay
gain through experience
gain knowledge or skills
come into the possession of something concrete or abstract
win something through one's efforts
locate (a moving entity) by means of a tracking system such as radar