Get
noun1
A member of the Getae.
- Related terms
- Getic
get
verbalso spelled GetCA, US, UK /ɡɛt/ · /ɡɪt/
Etymology
From Middle English geten, from Old Norse geta, from Proto-Germanic *getaną (“to find; to acquire, attain, get, hold, receive”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰed- (“to find; to hold; to seize; to take”). Cognates Cognate with Yola get (“to get”), Danish gide (“to care, like”), Faroese gita (“to be able”), Icelandic geta (“to be able; to beget, father; to achieve, obtain, to guess; to mention”), Norwegian Nynorsk gjeta, gjete (“to guess; to mention”), Scanian gida (“to have the energy to, to feel up for”), gæda (“to guess”), Swedish gita, gitta (“to be able, to bring oneself to, to care”), Gothic 𐌱𐌹𐌲𐌹𐍄𐌰𐌽 (bigitan, “to discover, find”); also Latin edera, hedera (“ivy”), praeda (“booty, pillage, plunder; prey; gain, profit”), prehendō, prēndō (“to grab, grasp, seize; to attain, reach”), Ancient Greek χανδάνω (khandánō, “to comprise, contain, hold”), Albanian gjej (“to find”).
33 senses
- 1To obtain; to acquire.
- 2To receive.
- 3To have. See usage notes.
- 4To fetch, bring, take.
- 5To become, or cause oneself to become (often with…
- 6To cause to become; to bring about.
- 7To cause to do.
- 8To cause to come or go or move.
- 9To adopt, assume, arrive at, or progress towards (a…
- 10To cover (a certain distance) while travelling.
- 11(with full infinitive or gerund-participle) To begin…
- 12To take or catch (a scheduled transportation service).
- 13To respond to (a telephone call, a doorbell, etc).
- 14(with full infinitive) To be able, be permitted, or have…
- 15To understand. (compare get it)
- 16To be told; be the recipient of (a question, comparison…
- 17Used with the past participle to form the dynamic…
- 18Used with a pronoun subject, usually you but sometimes…
- 19To become ill with or catch (a disease).
- 20To catch out, trick successfully.
- 21To perplex, stump.
- 22To find as an answer.
- 23To bring to reckoning; to catch (usually as a criminal)…
- 24To hear completely; catch.
- 25To getter.
- 26To beget (of a father).
- 27To learn; to commit to memory; to memorize; sometimes with out.
- 28Used with a personal pronoun to indicate that someone is…
- 29To go, to leave; to scram.
- 30To kill.
- 31To make acquisitions; to gain; to profit.
- 32To measure.
- 33To cause someone to laugh.
1
To obtain; to acquire.
- I'm going to get a computer tomorrow from the discount store.
- Lance is going to get Mary a ring.
2
To receive.
- I got a computer from my parents for my birthday.
- He got a severe reprimand for that.
1 more example
- 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.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:
3
In a perfect construction, With present-tense meaning To have. See usage notes.
- I've got a concert ticket for you.
- "Yeah, and I got a bridge in Brooklyn I'd like to sell you," was Peter's response to his wife.2012, James Hibbitts, Joe Roberts, The Secret of Graveyard Hill, Tate Publishing, →ISBN, page 74:
4
To fetch, bring, take.
- Can you get my bag from the living-room, please?
- I need to get this to the office.
2 more examples
- Get thee out from this land.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 31:13:
- He[…]got himself[…]to the strong town of Mega.1603, Richard Knolles, The Generall Historie of the Turkes, […], London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC, page 634:
5
Followed by an adjective To become, or cause oneself to become (often with temporary states, past participle adjectives and comparatives).
Rather informal
- Near-synonyms: become, turn, go, come, fall, grow, wax
- I'm getting hungry; how about you?
3 more examples
- I'm going out to get drunk.
- November 1, 1833, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Table Talk His chariot wheels get hot by driving fast.
- 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.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:
6
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.
3 more examples
- I can't get these boots off.
- I can’t get my hands warm.
- 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.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:
7
To cause to do.
- Somehow she got him to agree to it.
- I can't get it to work.
4 more examples
- I can't get it working.
- I can’t get my kids to go to bed early.
- Get him to say his prayers.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:
- 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.”1927, F. E. Penny, chapter 5, in Pulling the Strings:
8
To cause to come or go or move.
- I got him to his room.
- Get thee behind me.1881, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, “Retro me, Sathana !”, in Ballads and Sonnets, →OCLC, page 252:
9
Usually, With various prepositions To adopt, assume, arrive at, or progress towards (a certain position, location, state).
Such as into; over; or behind; get over; such as into; over; or behind; get over For specific idiomatic senses see individual entries get into
- The actors are getting into position.
- When are we going to get to London?
2 more examples
- I'm getting into a muddle.
- We got behind the wall.
10
To cover (a certain distance) while travelling.
- to get a mile
11
Catenative (with full infinitive or gerund-participle) To begin (doing something or to do something).
- We ought to get moving or we'll be late.
- After lunch we got chatting.
1 more example
- I'm getting to like him better now.
12
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.
13
To respond to (a telephone call, a doorbell, etc).
- Can you get that call, please? I'm busy.
14
Catenative (with full 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.
1 more example
- Great. I get to clean the toilets today.
15
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!
1 more example
- I mentioned that I was feeling sad, so she mailed me a box of chocolates. She gets me.
16
Informal To be told; be the recipient of (a question, comparison, opinion, etc.).
- "You look just like Helen Mirren." / "I get that a lot."
- 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.2011, “You Probably Get That A Lot (Elegant Too Remix)”, in They Might Be Giants (music), Album Raises New and Troubling Questions:
17
Informal 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.
- He got bitten by a dog.
- 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.2003, Richard A. Posner, Law, Pragmatism, and Democracy, page 95:
18
Informal 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.
- You get some very rude people here.
- It was the kind of shop you used to get in most small towns.
3 more examples
- 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.1964, Lawrence Alloway, “Cobra Group with Lawrence Alloway, 1964”, in Guggenheim Museum Archives Reel-to-Reel collection:
- You get non-binary people – you get people who don't identify as a man or a woman.2021, 25:30 from the start, in No More Jockeys, season 4, episode 13, spoken by Mark Watson:
- It was a terrible place to live. You get places like that. It is just the way it is.2023 October 27, Laine Priestley, Mary Williams, “Boarding house destroyed by fire”, in Star News:
19
To become ill with or catch (a disease).
- I went on holiday and got malaria.
20
Informal To catch out, trick successfully.
- He keeps calling pretending to be my boss—it gets me every time.
21
Informal To perplex, stump.
- That question's really got me.
22
To find as an answer.
- What did you get for question four?
23
Informal To bring to reckoning; to catch (usually as a criminal); to effect retribution.
- The cops finally got me.
- I'm gonna get him for that.
24
To hear completely; catch.
- Sorry, I didn't get that. Could you repeat it?
25
To getter.
- I put the getter into the container to get the gases.
26
Archaic To beget (of a father).
- I had rather to adopt a child than get it.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:
- Thou poisonous slave, got by the devil himself / Upon thy wicked dam, come forth!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:
1 more example
- 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.2009, Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall, Fourth Estate, published 2010, page 310:
27
Archaic To learn; to commit to memory; to memorize; sometimes with out.
- to get a lesson; to get out one's Greek lesson
- it being harder with him to get one sermon by heart, than to pen twenty1662, John Fell, The life of the most learned, reverend and pious Dr. H. Hammond, page 96:
28
Imperative, Informal Used with a personal pronoun to indicate that someone is being pretentious or grandiose.
- Get her with her new hairdo.
- Brother, get her! Draped on a bedspread made from three kinds of fur!1966, Dorothy Fields, “If My Friends Could See Me Now”:
1 more example
- Money's pouring in somewhere, because Churchgate's got lovely new stone setts, and a cultural quarter (ooh, get her) is promised.2007, Tom Dyckhoff, Let's move to ..., The Guardian:
29
Imperative, Informal To go, to leave; to scram.
- Get, now — get! — before I call an officer and lay a charge against ye.1991, Theodore Dreiser, T. D. Nostwich, Newspaper Days, University of Pennsylvania Press, →ISBN, page 663:
- 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.1952, Fredric Brown, Mack Reynolds, Me and Flapjack and the Martians:
3 more examples
- 'Go on, get. You look a state. We can't let Leo see you like that.'2010, Sarah Webb, The Loving Kind, Pan Macmillan, →ISBN:
- Now go on, get! Get! Get! (she chases Joanne out the door with the hammer.)2012, Paul Zindel, Ladies at the Alamo, Graymalkin Media, →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.2016, April Daniels, Dreadnought, Diversion Books, →ISBN:
30
Euphemistic To kill.
- They’re coming to get you, Barbara.
- He got Dancer and Prancer with an old German Luger And he slashed up Dasher just like Freddy Krueger1996, "Weird Al" Yankovic, “The Night Santa Went Crazy”, in Bad Hair Day:
31
Obsolete To make acquisitions; to gain; to profit.
- We mourn, France smiles; we lose, they daily get.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:
32
To measure.
- Did you get her temperature?
33
To cause someone to laugh.
- It gets me every time!
- Derived terms
198 terms
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- guess