get
English
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
From Middle English geten, from Old Norse geta, from Proto-Germanic *getaną (Cognate with Old English ġietan (whence English yet), Old High German pigezzan (“to uphold”), Gothic 𐌱𐌹𐌲𐌹𐍄𐌰𐌽 (bigitan, “to find, discover”)), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰed- (“to seize”).
Verb
get (third-person singular simple present gets, present participle getting, simple past got or (archaic) gat, past participle got or (United States, Canada) gotten or (Geordie) getten)
- (ditransitive) To obtain; to acquire.
- I'm going to get a computer tomorrow from the discount store.
- Lance is going to get Mary a ring.
- (transitive) To receive.
- I got a computer from my parents for my birthday.
- You need to get permission to leave early.
- He got a severe reprimand for that.
- 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 8, in Mr. Pratt's Patients, page 175:
- 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.
- (transitive, in a perfect construction, with present-tense meaning) To have. See usage notes.
- I've got a concert ticket for you.
- (transitive) To fetch, bring, take.
- Can you get my bag from the living-room, please?
- I need to get this to the office.
- 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 31:13:
- Get thee out from this land.
- 1603, Richard Knolles, The Generall Historie of the Turkes, […], London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC, page 634:
- He […] got himself […] to the strong town of Mega.
- (copulative) To become, or cause oneself to become.
- I'm getting hungry; how about you?
- I'm going out to get drunk.
- November 1, 1833, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Table Talk
- His chariot wheels get hot by driving fast.
- 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 8, in Mr. Pratt's Patients, page 175:
- 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.
- (transitive) To cause to become; to bring about.
- That song gets me so depressed every time I hear it.
- I'll get this finished by lunchtime.
- I can't get these boots off (or on).
- 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 1, in Mr. Pratt's Patients, page 6:
- 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.
- (transitive) To cause to do.
- Somehow she got him to agree to it.
- I can't get it to work.
- 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:
- Get him to say his prayers.
- 1927, F. E. Penny, chapter 5, in Pulling the Strings:
- 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.”
- (transitive) To cause to come or go or move.
- I got him to his room.
- 1881, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, “Retro me, Sathana !”, in Ballads and Sonnets, →OCLC, page 252:
- Get thee behind me.
- (intransitive, with various prepositions, such as into, over, or behind; for specific idiomatic senses see individual entries get into, get over, etc.) To adopt, assume, arrive at, or progress towards (a certain position, location, state).
- The actors are getting into position.
- When are we going to get to London?
- I'm getting into a muddle.
- We got behind the wall.
- (transitive) To cover (a certain distance) while travelling.
- to get a mile
- (intransitive) To begin (doing something or to do something).
- We ought to get moving or we'll be late.
- After lunch we got chatting.
- I'm getting to like him better now.
- (transitive) To take or catch (a scheduled transportation service).
- I normally get the 7:45 train.
- I'll get the 9 a.m. [flight] to Boston.
- (transitive) To respond to (a telephone call, a doorbell, etc).
- Can you get that call, please? I'm busy.
- (intransitive, followed by infinitive) To be able, be permitted, or have the opportunity (to do something desirable or ironically implied to be desirable).
- I'm so jealous that you got to see them perform live!
- The finders get to keep 80 percent of the treasure.
- Great. I get to clean the toilets today.
- (transitive, informal) To understand. (compare get it)
- Yeah, I get it, it's just not funny.
- I don't get what you mean by "fun". This place sucks!
- I mentioned that I was feeling sad, so she mailed me a box of chocolates. She gets me.
- (transitive, informal) To be told; be the recipient of (a question, comparison, opinion, etc.).
- "You look just like Helen Mirren." / "I get that a lot."
- 2011, “You Probably Get That A Lot (Elegant Too Remix)”, in They Might Be Giants (music), Album Raises New and Troubling Questions:
- 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.
- (informal) To be. Used to form the passive of verbs.
- He got bitten by a dog.
- Lua error in Module:parameters at line 828: Parameter "books.google.com/books?isbn" is not used by this template.
- (transitive) To become ill with or catch (a disease).
- I went on holiday and got malaria.
- (transitive, informal) To catch out, trick successfully.
- He keeps calling pretending to be my boss—it gets me every time.
- (transitive, informal) To perplex, stump.
- That question's really got me.
- (transitive) To find as an answer.
- What did you get for question four?
- (transitive, informal) To bring to reckoning; to catch (as a criminal); to effect retribution.
- The cops finally got me.
- I'm gonna get him for that.
- (transitive) To hear completely; catch.
- Sorry, I didn't get that. Could you repeat it?
- (transitive) To getter.
- I put the getter into the container to get the gases.
- (now rare) To beget (of a father).
- 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:
- I had rather to adopt a child than get it.
- 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:
- Thou poisonous slave, got by the devil himself / Upon thy wicked dam, come forth!
- 2009, Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall, Fourth Estate 2010, page 310:
- 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.
- (archaic) To learn; to commit to memory; to memorize; sometimes with out.
- to get a lesson; to get out one's Greek lesson
- (imperative, informal) Used with a personal pronoun to indicate that someone is being pretentious or grandiose.
- Get her with her new hairdo.
- 1966, Dorothy Fields, If My Friends Could See Me Now (song)
- Brother, get her! Draped on a bedspread made from three kinds of fur!
- 2007, Tom Dyckhoff, Let's move to ..., The Guardian:
- Money's pouring in somewhere, because Churchgate's got lovely new stone setts, and a cultural quarter (ooh, get her) is promised.
- (intransitive, informal, chiefly imperative) To go, to leave; to scram.
- 1991, Theodore Dreiser, T. D. Nostwich, Newspaper Days, University of Pennsylvania Press →ISBN, page 663
- Get, now — get! — before I call an officer and lay a charge against ye.
- 1952, Fredric Brown and Mack Reynolds, Me and Flapjack and the Martians
- 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.
- 2010, Sarah Webb, The Loving Kind, Pan Macmillan →ISBN:
- 'Go on, get. You look a state. We can't let Leo see you like that.'
- 2012, Paul Zindel, Ladies at the Alamo, Graymalkin Media (→ISBN):
- Now go on, get! Get! Get! (she chases Joanne out the door with the hammer.)
- 2016, April Daniels, Dreadnought, Diversion Books (→ISBN):
- " […] 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.
- 1991, Theodore Dreiser, T. D. Nostwich, Newspaper Days, University of Pennsylvania Press →ISBN, page 663
- (euphemistic) To kill.
- They’re coming to get you, Barbara.
- (intransitive, obsolete) To make acquisitions; to gain; to profit.
- 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:
- We mourn, France smiles; we lose, they daily get.
- (transitive) To measure.
- Did you get her temperature?
Usage notes
- The meaning "to have" is found only in perfect tenses but has present meaning; hence "I have got" has the same meaning as "I have". (Sometimes the form had got is used to mean "had", as in "He said they couldn't find the place because they'd got the wrong address".) In speech and in all except formal writing, the word "have" is normally reduced to /v/ and spelled "-'ve" or dropped entirely (e.g. "I got a God-fearing woman, one I can easily afford", Slow Train, Bob Dylan), leading to nonstandard usages such as "he gots" = "he has", "he doesn't got" = "he doesn't have".
- Some dialects (e.g. American English dialects) use both gotten and got as past participles, while others (e.g. dialects of Southern England) use only got. In dialects that use both, got is used for the meanings "to have" and "to have to", while gotten is used for all other meanings.[1] This allows for a distinction between "I've gotten a ticket" (I have received or obtained a ticket) vs. "I've got a ticket" (I currently have a ticket).
- "get" is one of the most common verbs in English, and the many meanings may be confusing for language learners. The following table indicates some of the different constructions found, along with the most common meanings of each:
Construction | Most common meanings |
---|---|
get + inanimate object | to receive, to obtain, to take |
have got + inanimate object | to have |
get + person | to understand or to catch |
get + concept | to understand |
get + adjective | to become |
get + person + adjective | to cause to become |
get + location adverb | to arrive |
get + to + location | |
get + to + verb | to be able to |
get + person + to + verb | to cause to do |
get + verb + -ing | to begin doing |
get + verb + -ed/-en | to be (passive voice) |
Synonyms
- (obtain): acquire, come by, have
- (receive): receive, be given
- (fetch): bring, fetch, retrieve
- (become): become
- (cause to become): cause to be, cause to become, make
- (cause to do): make
- (arrive): arrive at, reach
- (go, leave): get out go, leave, scram
- (adopt or assume (a position or state)): go, move
- (begin): begin, commence, start
- (catch (a means of public transport)): catch, take
- (respond to (telephone, doorbell)): answer
- (be able to; have the opportunity to do): be able to
- (informal: understand): dig, follow, make sense of, understand
- (informal: be (used to form the passive)): be
- (informal: catch (a disease)): catch, come down with
- (informal: trick): con, deceive, dupe, hoodwink, trick
- (informal: perplex): confuse, perplex, stump
- (find as an answer): obtain
- (bring to reckoning; to catch (as a criminal)): catch, nab, nobble
- (physically assault): assault, beat, beat up
- (informal: hear): catch, hear
- (getter): getter
Antonyms
- (obtain): lose
Derived terms
- beget
- forget
- from the get-go
- get about
- get a charge out of
- get across
- get across to
- get action
- get after
- get ahead of oneself
- get along
- get along with
- get a look in
- get around
- get around to
- get at
- get away
- get away from
- get away with
- get a word in edgeways, get a word in edgewise
- get back
- get back to
- get behind
- get better
- get beyond
- get by
- get cold feet
- get done
- get down
- get going
- get in
- get in the boat and row
- get into
- get into trouble
- get in with
- get it
- get it across one's head
- get it how one lives
- get it into one's head
- get it on
- get it over with
- get knotted
- get lost
- get moving
- get off
- get off easy
- get off lightly
- get off with
- get on
- get one over on
- get one's end away
- get one's groove on
- get one's rocks off
- get on in years
- get on to
- get on with
- get out
- get out of
- get over
- get-rich-quick
- get rid of
- get round
- get round to
- get some air
- get someone's goat
- get something straight
- get stuffed
- get thee behind me
- get the goods on
- get there
- get the time to
- get this show on the road
- get through
- get through to
- get to
- get to be
- get together
- get under
- get up
- get-up
- get up and go
- get-up-and-go
- get up in
- get up to
- get well soon
- get with child
- get with the program, get with the programme
- go-getter
- go-getting
- got
- have got
- those that have, get
- underget
- you don't get something for nothing
Related terms
Translations
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Noun
get (plural gets)
- (dated) Offspring.
- 1810, Thomas Hornby Morland, The genealogy of the English race horse (page 71)
- At the time when I am making these observations, one of his colts is the first favourite for the Derby; and it will be recollected, that a filly of his get won the Oaks in 1808.
- 1976, Frank Herbert, Children of Dune:
- You must admit that the bastard get of Paul Atreides would be no more than juicy morsels for those two [tigers].
- 1999, George R.R. Martin, A Clash of Kings, Bantam 2011, page 755:
- ‘You were a high lord's get. Don't tell me Lord Eddard Stark of Winterfell never killed a man.’
- 1810, Thomas Hornby Morland, The genealogy of the English race horse (page 71)
- Lineage.
- (sports, tennis) A difficult return or block of a shot.
- (informal) Something gained; an acquisition.
- 2008, Karen Yampolsky, Falling Out of Fashion, page 73:
- I had reconnected with the lust of my life while landing a big get for the magazine.
Etymology 2
Variant of git.
Noun
get (plural gets)
Etymology 3
Noun
get (plural gets or gittim or gitten)
- (Judaism) A Jewish writ of divorce.
- 2013, Dan Cohn-Sherbok, George D. Chryssides, Dawoud El-Alami, Love, Sex and Marriage (page 143)
- In Israel, rabbinic courts can imprison men until they acquiesce and grant gets to their wives.
- 2013, Dan Cohn-Sherbok, George D. Chryssides, Dawoud El-Alami, Love, Sex and Marriage (page 143)
Alternative forms
Quotations
- For quotations using this term, see Citations:get.
References
- “get”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
- “get”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
Anagrams
Azerbaijani
Verb
get
Chinese
Etymology
Pronunciation
- Cantonese
- (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)+
- Jyutping: get1
- Cantonese Pinyin: get7
- Guangdong Romanization: géd1
- Sinological IPA (key): /kɛːt̚⁵/
- (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)+
Verb
get
Icelandic
Verb
get
- inflection of geta:
Ladino
Etymology
Noun
get m (Latin spelling)
Limburgish
Alternative forms
Pronunciation
Etymology
From Middle Dutch iewet, iet. The diphthong /ie̯/ developed into /je/ word-initially, as it did in High German, and the onset was then enclitically hardened to ⟨g⟩ (/ʝ/). Cognate with Dutch iets, Central Franconian jet, northern Luxembourgish jett, gett, English aught.
Adverb
get
Pronoun
get
- something, anything
- (indefinite pronoun) Placed before a plural noun, indicating general cases of people or things: some
- Doe has get höng. ― You own some dogs.
Mauritian Creole
Verb
get
Middle English
Alternative forms
Etymology
From a northern form of Old French jayet, jaiet, gaiet, from Latin gagātēs, from Ancient Greek Γαγάτης (Gagátēs).
Pronunciation
Noun
get (uncountable)
Descendants
- English: jet
References
- “ǧē̆t, n.(2).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-04-24.
Old Norse
Etymology
From geta.
Noun
get n
Declension
Verb
get
References
- “get”, in Geir T. Zoëga (1910) A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press
Old Swedish
Etymology
From Old Norse geit, from Proto-Germanic *gaits.
Pronunciation
Noun
gēt f
Declension
Descendants
- Swedish: get
Romanian
Etymology
From French Gètes, Latin Getae, from Ancient Greek Γέται (Gétai).
Pronunciation
Noun
get m (plural geți, feminine equivalent getă)
Declension
Synonyms
Swedish
Etymology
From Old Swedish gēt, from Old Norse geit, from Proto-Germanic *gaits, from Proto-Indo-European *gʰayd- (“goat”).
Pronunciation
Noun
get c
Declension
Declension of get | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Singular | Plural | |||
Indefinite | Definite | Indefinite | Definite | |
Nominative | get | geten | getter | getterna |
Genitive | gets | getens | getters | getternas |
Anagrams
Yola
Verb
get
- Alternative form of geeth
- 1867, “BIT OF DIALOGUE”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY:
- Caulès will na get to wullaw to-die.
- Horses will not get to wallow to-day.
References
- Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 111
- English 1-syllable words
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- Rhymes:English/ɛt
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