have one's back up

verb

have one's back up

verb

1

Idiomatic To be angry or defensive.

He's had his back up all morning. There's no point in trying to talk to him.

Synonyms: get one's dander up, get one's Irish up
Related terms: put someone's back up, raise someone's hackles, ruffle some feathers, get someone's back up

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.