get
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ɡɛt/
note: regionally restricted, less formal
ipa: /ɡɪt/
rhymes: -ɛt
Forms: form: gets
form: getting
form: got
form: gat
form: got
form: gotten
form: getten
form: no-table-tags
form: glossary
form: get
form: get
form: got
form: gat
form: get
form: gettest
form: got
form: gottest
form: gattest
form: gets
form: getteth
form: got
form: get
form: got
form: get
form: got
form: get
form: -
form: getting
form: got
form: gotten
form: getten
Etymology: From Middle English geten, from Old Norse geta, from Proto-Germanic *getaną. Cognate with Old English ġietan (whence also English yet), Old Saxon getan (“to get, to gain sth.”), Old High German pigezzan (“to uphold”), Gothic 𐌱𐌹𐌲𐌹𐍄𐌰𐌽 (bigitan, “to find, discover”)), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰed- (“to seize”).
Senses: examples: text: I'm going to get a computer tomorrow from the discount store.
text: Lance is going to get Mary a ring.
glosses: To obtain; to acquire.
examples: text: I got a computer from my parents for my birthday.
text: He got a severe reprimand for that.
text: Afore we got to the shanty Colonel Applegate stuck his head out of the door. His temper had been getting raggeder all the time, and the sousing he got when he fell overboard had just about ripped what was left of it to ravellings.
ref: 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VIII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC, page 175:
glosses: To receive.
examples: text: I've got a concert ticket for you.
text: "Yeah, and I got a bridge in Brooklyn I'd like to sell you," was Peter's response to his wife.
ref: 2012, James Hibbitts, Joe Roberts, The Secret of Graveyard Hill, Tate Publishing, →ISBN, page 74:
glosses: To have. See usage notes.
raw_tags: in a perfect construction
with present-tense meaning
examples: text: Can you get my bag from the living-room, please?
text: I need to get this to the office.
text: Get thee out from this land.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 31:13:
text: He[…]got himself[…]to the strong town of Mega.
ref: 1603, Richard Knolles, The Generall Historie of the Turkes, […], London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC, page 634:
glosses: To fetch, bring, take.
examples: text: I'm getting hungry; how about you?
text: I'm going out to get drunk.
text: November 1, 1833, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Table Talk
His chariot wheels get hot by driving fast.
text: Afore we got to the shanty Colonel Applegate stuck his head out of the door. His temper had been getting raggeder all the time, and the sousing he got when he fell overboard had just about ripped what was left of it to ravellings.
ref: 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VIII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC, page 175:
synonyms: grow
wax
glosses: To become, or cause oneself to become.
examples: text: That song gets me so depressed every time I hear it.
text: I'll get this finished by lunchtime.
text: I can't get these boots off.
text: I can’t get my hands warm.
text: Then there came a reg'lar terror of a sou'wester same as you don't get one summer in a thousand, and blowed the shanty flat and ripped about half of the weir poles out of the sand. We spent consider'ble money getting 'em reset, and then a swordfish got into the pound and tore the nets all to slathers, right in the middle of the squiteague season.
ref: 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC, page 6:
glosses: To cause to become; to bring about.
examples: text: Somehow she got him to agree to it.
text: I can't get it to work.
text: I can't get it working.
text: I can’t get my kids to go to bed early.
text: Get him to say his prayers.
ref: c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii], page 268:
text: Anstruther laughed good-naturedly. “[…] I shall take out half a dozen intelligent maistries from our Press and get them to give our villagers instruction when they begin work and when they are in the fields.”
ref: 1927, F. E. Penny, chapter 5, in Pulling the Strings:
glosses: To cause to do.
examples: text: I got him to his room.
text: Get thee behind me.
ref: 1881, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, “Retro me, Sathana !”, in Ballads and Sonnets, →OCLC, page 252:
glosses: To cause to come or go or move.
examples: text: The actors are getting into position.
text: When are we going to get to London?
text: I'm getting into a muddle.
text: We got behind the wall.
qualifier: such as into; over; or behind; get over; such as into; over; or behind; get over
glosses: To adopt, assume, arrive at, or progress towards (a certain position, location, state).
raw_tags: for specific idiomatic senses see individual entries get into
with various prepositions
examples: text: to get a mile
glosses: To cover (a certain distance) while travelling.
examples: text: We ought to get moving or we'll be late.
text: After lunch we got chatting.
text: I'm getting to like him better now.
glosses: (with full infinitive or gerund-participle) To begin (doing something or to do something).
examples: text: I normally get the 7:45 train.
text: I'll get the 9 a.m. [flight] to Boston.
glosses: To take or catch (a scheduled transportation service).
examples: text: Can you get that call, please? I'm busy.
glosses: To respond to (a telephone call, a doorbell, etc).
examples: text: I'm so jealous that you got to see them perform live!
text: The finders get to keep 80 percent of the treasure.
text: Great. I get to clean the toilets today.
glosses: (with full infinitive) To be able, be permitted, or have the opportunity (to do something desirable or ironically implied to be desirable).
examples: text: Yeah, I get it, it's just not funny.
text: I don't get what you mean by "fun". This place sucks!
text: I mentioned that I was feeling sad, so she mailed me a box of chocolates. She gets me.
glosses: To understand. (compare get it)
examples: text: "You look just like Helen Mirren." / "I get that a lot."
text: Do you mind? Excuse me / I saw you over there / Can I just tell you ¶ Although there are millions of / Cephalophores that wander through this world / You've got something extra going on / I think you probably know ¶ You probably get that a lot / I'll bet that people say that a lot to you, girl.
ref: 2011, “You Probably Get That A Lot (Elegant Too Remix)”, in They Might Be Giants (music), Album Raises New and Troubling Questions:
glosses: To be told; be the recipient of (a question, comparison, opinion, etc.).
examples: text: He got bitten by a dog.
text: Of particular importance is the bureaucratic organization of European judiciaries. The judiciary is a career. You start at the bottom and get assigned and promoted at the pleasure of your superiors.
ref: 2003, Richard A. Posner, Law, Pragmatism, and Democracy, page 95:
synonyms: to be
glosses: Used with the past participle to form the dynamic passive voice of a dynamic verb. Compared with static passive with to be, this emphasizes the commencement of an action or entry into a state.
examples: text: You get some very rude people here.
text: It was the kind of shop you used to get in most small towns.
text: He thinks that proper to northern man is the cellular composition, you know, the kind of thing one gets in Celtic ornamentation, for example, which a subject that interests him greatly.
ref: 1964, Lawrence Alloway, “Cobra Group with Lawrence Alloway, 1964”, in Guggenheim Museum Archives Reel-to-Reel collection:
text: You get non-binary people – you get people who don't identify as a man or a woman.
ref: 2021, 25:30 from the start, in No More Jockeys, season 4, episode 13, spoken by Mark Watson:
text: It was a terrible place to live. You get places like that. It is just the way it is.
ref: 2023 October 27, Laine Priestley, Mary Williams, “Boarding house destroyed by fire”, in Star News:
glosses: Used with a pronoun subject, usually you but sometimes one, to indicate that the object of the verb exists, can occur or is otherwise typical.
examples: text: I went on holiday and got malaria.
glosses: To become ill with or catch (a disease).
examples: text: He keeps calling pretending to be my boss—it gets me every time.
glosses: To catch out, trick successfully.
examples: text: That question's really got me.
glosses: To perplex, stump.
examples: text: What did you get for question four?
glosses: To find as an answer.
examples: text: The cops finally got me.
text: I'm gonna get him for that.
glosses: To bring to reckoning; to catch (usually as a criminal); to effect retribution.
examples: text: Sorry, I didn't get that. Could you repeat it?
glosses: To hear completely; catch.
examples: text: I put the getter into the container to get the gases.
glosses: To getter.
examples: text: I had rather to adopt a child than get it.
ref: c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii], page 314:
text: Thou poisonous slave, got by the devil himself / Upon thy wicked dam, come forth!
ref: 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], page 4:
text: Walter had said, dear God, Thomas, it was St fucking Felicity if I'm not mistaken, and her face was to the wall for sure the night I got you.
ref: 2009, Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall, Fourth Estate, published 2010, page 310:
glosses: To beget (of a father).
examples: text: to get a lesson;  to get out one's Greek lesson
text: it being harder with him to get one sermon by heart, than to pen twenty
ref: 1662, John Fell, The life of the most learned, reverend and pious Dr. H. Hammond, page 96:
glosses: To learn; to commit to memory; to memorize; sometimes with out.
examples: text: Get her with her new hairdo.
text: Brother, get her! Draped on a bedspread made from three kinds of fur!
ref: 1966, Dorothy Fields, “If My Friends Could See Me Now”:
text: Money's pouring in somewhere, because Churchgate's got lovely new stone setts, and a cultural quarter (ooh, get her) is promised.
ref: 2007, Tom Dyckhoff, Let's move to ..., The Guardian:
glosses: Used with a personal pronoun to indicate that someone is being pretentious or grandiose.
examples: text: Get, now — get! — before I call an officer and lay a charge against ye.
ref: 1991, Theodore Dreiser, T. D. Nostwich, Newspaper Days, University of Pennsylvania Press, →ISBN, page 663:
text: I had a sneaking suspicion that it wasn't no flashlight and I wasn't too curious, just then, to find out what would happen if he did more than wave it at me, so I got. I went back about twenty feet or so and watched.
ref: 1952, Fredric Brown, Mack Reynolds, Me and Flapjack and the Martians:
text: 'Go on, get. You look a state. We can't let Leo see you like that.'
ref: 2010, Sarah Webb, The Loving Kind, Pan Macmillan, →ISBN:
text: Now go on, get! Get! Get! (she chases Joanne out the door with the hammer.)
ref: 2012, Paul Zindel, Ladies at the Alamo, Graymalkin Media, →ISBN:
text: "[…] and then I'll switch over to the police band to know when the bacon's getting ready to stick its nose in. When I tell you to get, you get, understand?" Calamity asks as she retapes the earbud into her ear.
ref: 2016, April Daniels, Dreadnought, Diversion Books, →ISBN:
glosses: To go, to leave; to scram.
examples: text: They’re coming to get you, Barbara.
text: He got Dancer and Prancer with an old German Luger
And he slashed up Dasher just like Freddy Krueger
ref: 1996, "Weird Al" Yankovic, “The Night Santa Went Crazy”, in Bad Hair Day:
glosses: To kill.
examples: text: We mourn, France smiles; we lose, they daily get.
ref: 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii], page 112:
glosses: To make acquisitions; to gain; to profit.
examples: text: Did you get her temperature?
glosses: To measure.
examples: text: It gets me every time!
glosses: To cause someone to laugh.
Synonyms: sense: obtain
word: acquire
sense: obtain
word: come by
sense: obtain
word: have
sense: receive
word: receive
sense: receive
word: be give
sense: fetch
word: bring
sense: fetch
word: fetch
sense: fetch
word: retrieve
sense: become
word: become
sense: cause to become
word: cause to be
sense: cause to become
word: cause to become
sense: cause to become
word: make
sense: cause to do
word: make
sense: arrive
word: arrive at
sense: arrive
word: reach
sense: go, leave
word: get out go
sense: go, leave
word: leave
sense: go, leave
word: scram
sense: adopt or assume (a position or state)
word: go
sense: adopt or assume (a position or state)
word: move
sense: begin
word: begin
sense: begin
word: commence
sense: begin
word: start
sense: catch (a means of public transport)
word: catch
sense: catch (a means of public transport)
word: take
sense: respond to (telephone, doorbell)
word: answer
sense: be able to, have the opportunity to do
word: be able to
sense: informal: understand
word: dig
word: follow
word: make sense of
word: understand
sense: informal: be (used to form the passive)
word: be
sense: informal: catch (a disease)
word: catch
word: come down with
sense: informal: trick
word: con
word: deceive
word: dupe
word: hoodwink
word: trick
sense: informal: perplex
word: confuse
word: perplex
word: stump
sense: find as an answer
word: obtain
sense: bring to reckoning, to catch (as a criminal)
word: catch
sense: bring to reckoning, to catch (as a criminal)
word: nab
sense: bring to reckoning, to catch (as a criminal)
word: nobble
sense: physically assault
word: assault
sense: physically assault
word: beat
sense: physically assault
word: beat up
sense: informal: hear
word: catch
word: hear
sense: getter
word: getter
Derived terms: a closed mouth doesn't get fed
a lie can run around the world before the truth can get its boots on
beget
could I get the bill
could we get the bill
could not get elected dogcatcher
forget
the get
the get-go
get about
get above oneself
get a charge out of
get across
get across to
get action
get a dog up you
get after
get ahead of oneself
get along
get a look in
get around
get around to
get round to
get a sad on
get at
get-at-able
get away
get away with
get away with you
get a word in edgeways
get a word in edgewise
get back
get back on the horse
get back to
get behind
get better
get beyond
get by
get cold feet
get done
get down
get down on
get down to
get eyes on
get glad in the same britches one got mad in
get glad in the same pants one got mad in
get-go
get going
get got
get happy
get home
get home bag
get in
get in the boat and row
get into
get into it
get into trouble
get in touch
get in with
get it
get it across one's head
get it how one lives
get it in
get it into one's head
get it in ya
get it on
get it over with
get it twisted
get something twisted
get knotted
get lost
get lucky
get misty
get moving
get-nothing
get nowhere fast
get off
get off easy
get off lightly
get off one's backside
get off one's ass
get off with
get on
get one over on
get one's arse in gear
get one's arse into gear
get one's claws on
get one's hands on
get one's end away
get one's groove on
get one's head out of the gutter
get one's mind out of the gutter
get one's hole
get one's hump up
get one's kicks
get one's rocks off
get one's shinebox
get one's shine box
get one's shtick together
get on in years
get on to
get on with
get out
get-out bet
get out from under
get out of
get out of my face
get out of my sight
get over
get rekt
get-rich-quick
get rid of
get round
get rounds
get some air
get someone at it
get someone's goat
get someone's neurons firing
get something straight
get stuffed
gettable
get thee behind me
get the goods on
get there
get-there-ativeness
get the time to
get this show on the road
get through
getting any
getting enough
getting-to-know-you
getting used to
get to
get to be
get together
Gettr
get under
get under it
get under someone's goat
get up
get-up-and-go
get up and go
getup
get-up
get up in
get up into
get up off
get up to
get well soon
get with child
get with it
get with the program
get with the programme
get woke, go broke
get you gone
go-getter
go-getting
got
hard-to-get
have got
hippity hoppity get off my property
how are you getting along
how you get them is how you lose them
if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys
I got 2 phones
misget
nice work if you can get it
overget
placegetting
reget
the natives are getting restless
the rich get richer
those that have, get
tokens get spent
underget
unget
you don't get something for nothing
Related terms: guess