get rid of

English

Pronunciation

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Verb

get rid of (third-person singular simple present gets rid of, present participle getting rid of, simple past got rid of, past participle (UK) got rid of or (US) gotten rid of)

1. (transitive, idiomatic) To rid oneself of; to cause oneself to be free of or released from.

   Synonyms: abolish, discard, dismiss, drop, lose, remove, shed; see also Thesaurus:junk

   Over the weekend he spent some time getting rid of the clothes he no longer wears.

   I want to get rid of your influence over my life!

   • March 23, 1727, Alexander Pope, letter to Jonathan Swift

     to get rid of fools and scoundrels

Usage notes

One is said to get rid of something unwanted or undesirable. The term is not neutral; it implies that the situation is improved by getting rid of that thing.

The term belongs to a less formal register than most of the synonyms listed above.

Related terms

• be rid of

Translations

remove

• Albanian: gultoj (sq), heq qafe
• Arabic: تَخَلَّصَ ... مِن‎ (taḵallaṣa ... min)
• Belarusian: збаўля́цца impf (zbaŭljácca), зба́віцца pf (zbávicca)
• Bulgarian: изба́вям се (bg) impf (izbávjam se)
• Catalan: desfer-se de, desempallegar-se de (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 擺脫／摆脱 (zh) (bǎituō), 清除 (zh) (qīngchú), 除去 (zh) (chúqù)

• Czech: zbavit se (cs)
• Danish: blive af med
• Dutch: kwijt raken, van af zijn
• Esperanto: forigi (eo)
• Finnish: päästä eroon, hankkiutua eroon
• French: se débarrasser de (fr), se défaire de (fr)
• Georgian: please add this translation if you can
• German: loswerden (de), abschaffen (de)
• Greek: γλιτώνω από (glitóno apó), διώχνω (el) (dióchno)
• Hebrew: נפטר‎ (he) (niftár)
• Hungarian: megszabadul (hu)
• Irish: cuir díot
• Italian: eliminare (it), sbarazzarsi, liberarsi (it)
• Japanese: 取り除く (ja) (とりのぞく, torinozoku), 免れる (ja) (まぬかれる, manukareru)
• Korean: 제거하다 (ko) (jegeohada)
• Manx: rey y gheddyn rish
• Norwegian: bli kvitt
• Pennsylvania German: aawaerre
• Polish: pozbyć się (pl) pf, pozbywać się (pl) impf
• Portuguese: livrar-se de (pt), desembaraçar-se de (pt) (less common)
• Romanian: se debarasa
• Russian: избавля́ться (ru) impf (izbavljátʹsja) (от... ot...), изба́виться (ru) pf (izbávitʹsja) (от... ot...)
• Scottish Gaelic: faigh cuidhteas
• Serbo-Croatian: otarasiti se (sh)
• Spanish: deshacerse (es), quitar (es), desembarazarse (es)
• Swedish: bli av med, göra sig av med (sv)
• Turkish: kurtulmak (tr)
• Ukrainian: позбавля́тися (pozbavljátysja), позбу́тися (pozbútysja)