get
EnglishEdit
PronunciationEdit
Etymology 1Edit
From Middle English geten, from Old Norse geta, from Proto-Germanic *getaną (compare Old English ġietan, Old High German pi-gezzan (“to uphold”), Gothic 𐌱𐌹𐌲𐌹𐍄𐌰𐌽 (bigitan, “to find, discover”)), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰed- (“to seize”). Cognate with Latin prehendo.
VerbEdit
get (third-person singular simple present gets, present participle getting, simple past got or (archaic) gat, past participle got or (American, Canadian, Irish, Northern English, Scottish, archaic) gotten)
- (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:
- 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.
- (copulative) To become.
- I'm getting hungry; how about you?
- Don't get drunk tonight.
- (Can we date this quote?) Samuel Taylor Coleridge
- His chariot wheels get hot by driving fast.
- 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 8, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:
- 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:
- 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 fetch, bring, take.
- Can you get my bag from the living-room, please?
- I need to get this to the office.
- Bible, Genesis xxxi. 13
- Get thee out from this land.
- (Can we date this quote?) Richard Knolles
- He […] got himself […] to the strong town of Mega.
- (transitive) To cause to do.
- Somehow she got him to agree to it.
- I can't get it to work.
- (Can we date this quote?) William Shakespeare
- 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.”
- (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.
- (Can we date this quote?) Alexander Pope
- to get rid of fools and scoundrels
- (transitive) To cover (a certain distance) while travelling.
- to get a mile
- (transitive) To cause to come or go or move.
- (transitive) To cause to be in a certain status or position.
- Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Retro me, Sathana, line 1
- Get thee behind me.
- Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Retro me, Sathana, line 1
- (intransitive) To begin (doing something).
- We ought to get moving or we'll be late.
- After lunch we got chatting.
- (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, permitted (to do something); to have the opportunity (to do something).
- I'm so jealous that you got to see them perform live!
- The finders get to keep 80 percent of the treasure.
- (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, They Might Be Giants (music), “You Probably Get That A Lot (Elegant Too Remix)”, in Album Raises New And Troubling Questions[1]:
- 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.
- 2003, Richard A. Posner, Law, Pragmatism, and Democracy, page 95:
- 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.
- (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).
- 1603, William Shakespeare, Othello, Act I, Scene iii[2]:
- I had rather to adopt a child than get it.
- 1610-11, William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act I, Scene ii[3]:
- 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.
- 1603, William Shakespeare, Othello, Act I, Scene iii[2]:
- (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.
- (informal, chiefly imperative) Go away; get lost.
- 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.&
- Fredric Brown, 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.)
- 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.
- (Can we date this quote?) William Shakespeare
- We mourn, France smiles; we lose, they daily get.
- (Can we date this quote?) William Shakespeare
Usage notesEdit
- 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) |
SynonymsEdit
- (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, come): come, go, travel
- (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
AntonymsEdit
- (obtain): lose
Derived termsEdit
- 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 carried away
- 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 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
- you don't get something for nothing
Related termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
to obtain
|
|
to receive
|
|
to become
|
|
to cause to become
to fetch
|
|
to don
to doff
to cause to do
to arrive at
|
to adopt, assume (a position)
to begin
to take, catch (transportation)
to respond to (a telephone call, a doorbell, etc)
to be able to, be permitted, have opportunity
colloquial: to understand
|
|
colloquial: to be
to become ill with
to catch out
to perplex
|
|
to find as an answer
to physically assault
|
to hear completely
to getter — see getter
to beget — see beget
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Translations to be checked
NounEdit
get (plural gets)
- (dated) Offspring.
- 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 RR 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.’
- 1976, Frank Herbert, Children of Dune
- Lineage.
- (sports, tennis) A difficult return or block of a shot.
- Something gained.
- 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.
- 2008, Karen Yampolsky, Falling Out of Fashion (page 73)
Etymology 2Edit
Variant of git.
NounEdit
get (plural gets)
Etymology 3Edit
NounEdit
Alternative formsEdit
QuotationsEdit
- For quotations of use of this term, see Citations:get.
AnagramsEdit
LadinoEdit
LimburgishEdit
EtymologyEdit
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.
PronounEdit
get
Mauritian CreoleEdit
Middle EnglishEdit
Alternative formsEdit
EtymologyEdit
From a northern form of Old French jayet, jaiet, gaiet, from Latin gagātēs, from Ancient Greek Γαγάτης (Gagátēs).
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
get (uncountable)
DescendantsEdit
- English: jet
ReferencesEdit
- “ǧē̆t (n.(2))” in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-04-24.
Old NorseEdit
EtymologyEdit
From geta.
NounEdit
get n
- (rare) a guess
DeclensionEdit
Declension of get (strong a-stem)
VerbEdit
get
ReferencesEdit
- get in Geir T. Zoëga (1910) A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press
Old SwedishEdit
EtymologyEdit
From Old Norse geit, from Proto-Germanic *gaits.
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
gēt f
DeclensionEdit
Declension of gēt (consonant stem)
| singular | plural | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| indefinite | definite | indefinite | definite | |
| nominative | gēt | gētin | gēter | gētrina(r), -rena(r) |
| accusative | gēt | gētina, -ena | gēter | gētrina(r), -rena(r) |
| dative | gēt | gētinni, -inne | gētum, -om | gētumin, -omen |
| genitive | gēta(r) | gētinna(r) | gēta | gētanna |
DescendantsEdit
- Swedish: get
RomanianEdit
EtymologyEdit
From French Gétes, Latin Getae, from Ancient Greek.
NounEdit
get m (plural geți, feminine equivalent getă)
SynonymsEdit
SwedishEdit
EtymologyEdit
From Old Swedish gēt, from Old Norse geit, from Proto-Germanic *gaits, from Proto-Indo-European *gʰayd- (“goat”).
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
get c
DeclensionEdit
| Declension of get | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | Plural | |||
| Indefinite | Definite | Indefinite | Definite | |
| Nominative | get | geten | getter | getterna |
| Genitive | gets | getens | getters | getternas |