English

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Pronunciation

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Verb

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get stuck into (third-person singular simple present gets stuck into, present participle getting stuck into, simple past and past participle got stuck into)

  1. (UK, Australia, New Zealand) Get busy with; become occupied with; become immersed in.
    • 1998, Gary McKay, In Good Company
      After pulling our boat up the beach there wasn’t much to do but collapse onto the sand and get stuck into some serious drinking.
    • 2002, Gary Nash, The Tarasov Saga: From Russia through China to Australia[1], page 232:
      But although some timber for the house was eventually delivered, he never got around to the building stage. ‘I′ll hire some help and we'll get stuck into it,’ he would say, but the only thing he ever got stuck into was his vodka.
    • 2005, David Else & Oliver Berry, Lonely Planet: England
      If you really want to get stuck into a bit of archaeology, check out the Archaeological Resource Centre ...
  2. (UK) To start eating.
    Dinner's ready! Quick, get stuck into it!
    • 2007, Kevin Brooks, The Road of the Dead, page 92:
      She took a big slurp of wine, and then we all got stuck into the food.
    • 2009, Robert Rankin, Retromancer, unnumbered page:
      ‘And get stuck into your breakfast, or I will be forced to relieve you of at least one of those splendid pork sausages.’
    • 2011, Pippa de Bruyn, Keith Bain, Frommer's South Africa, unnumbered page:
      Then get stuck into one of the char-grilled steaks, the sesame-encrusted tuna, or slow-cooked lamb shank.
  3. (Australia) To criticise someone; tell off; to get angry at; to attack.
    Why are you getting stuck into me all of the sudden? I didn't do anything!
    • 2003, Alasdair Duncan, Sushi Central[2], page 16:
      My dad′s getting stuck into me at the moment. He doesn′t think my English is good enough.
    • 2006, Kenneth Stanley Inglis, Whose ABC?: The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 1983-2006[3], page 157:
      Discussion, as Jackson notes, was lively, ‘with the union (through Cleary and Aarons) getting stuck into management and we getting stuck into them’.
    • 2009, James Roy, Town, Easyread Large Bold Edition, page 22,
      Of course there are some kids who get stuck into him, and sometimes that′ll make him curl up like a poked snail. But they don't do that very much anymore, because most of the other kids get stuck into them when that happens.