get wise
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Verb edit
get wise (third-person singular simple present gets wise, present participle getting wise, simple past got wise, past participle (UK) got wise or (US) gotten wise)
- (intransitive, slang, often with "to" or with "with") To be impertinent.
- He was getting wise, so I cracked him one.
- He wasn't just getting wise, he was getting wise to my mother.
- (intransitive, slang, often with "to") To become aware of or see through a deception.
- Last night, I thought he'd sign the deal, but this morning he'd got wised somehow.
- The substitute soon got wise to their particular tricks.
- 1934, Agatha Christie, chapter 8, in Murder on the Orient Express, London: HarperCollins, published 2017, page 254:
- 'How did you get wise to all this, that's what I want to know?'
Translations edit
(slang) to see through deceit
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