get someone's dander up

English

Etymology

US mid-19th century. Uncertain origin.

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌp

Verb

get someone's dander up (third-person singular simple present gets someone's dander up, present participle getting someone's dander up, simple past got someone's dander up, past participle (UK) got someone's dander up or (US) gotten someone's dander up)

1. (idiomatic) To anger or annoy someone.
   • 1846, Harriot F. Curtis, Jessie's Flirtations, page 89:

     Miss Jessie ain't afeard of the great, wicked, white man heself, when she gets her dander up; […]

   • 1854, Ann Sophia Stephens, High Life in New York, page 42:

     […] so it wasn't to be expected that I should not feel disagreeable when the two got their dander up, and went into such a tantrum with each other.

   • 2009, “Fighting Trousers”, in Paul "Professor Elemental" Alborough, Tom Caruana (lyrics), The Indifference Engine, performed by Professor Elemental:

     Sorry, I'm sorry Geoffrey / but it gets my goat / It gets my dander right up!

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:annoy and Thesaurus:enrage