get

Less common meanings

13. 13
    take (a bus)verbtransitive

    To take or catch a scheduled train, bus or flight.

    If we hurry, we can still get the last bus home tonight.

    She usually gets the early ferry so she can beat the crowds downtown.

    Similarcatch, take

14. 14
    catch (illness)verbtransitive

    To catch or come down with a disease or condition, from a cold to malaria.

    My grandfather got pneumonia last winter and spent a week in the hospital.

    Children often get chickenpox before they are ten.

    UsageCommon with illnesses: get a cold, get the flu, get chickenpox.

    Similarcatch, contract, develop

15. 15
    mustverb

    Used in have got to, or simply got to, to say that someone must do something, either because it is required or because they feel a need to.

    Employees have got to wear their badges at all times inside the plant.

    She's got to call her mother tonight, or she won't sleep a wink.

    UsageSpoken as I've got to go or she's got to leave; for the past, use had to.

    Note

    North American English, which otherwise prefers gotten as the past participle, keeps got in this construction, and the difference carries meaning: you've gotten to see it belongs to the "get the chance" sense, not to obligation.

16. 16
    answer (phone)verbtransitive

    To answer or respond to a telephone call, a doorbell or a knock.

    When the doorbell rang in the middle of dinner, Dad sighed and got up to get it.

    She got the phone on the second ring.

    UsageSet phrases: I'll get it, get the door, get the phone.

    Similaranswer

17. 17
    verbtransitive

    To arrive at a result or answer by calculation or reasoning.

    What answer did you get for the last problem?

    Adding the two columns, she got a different total each time.

    Similarobtain, find, reach, calculate

18. 18
    leave nowverbcolloquialintransitiveimperative

    To go away or clear off, mostly as an order.

    Now get, and don't let me catch you on my land again.

    I wasn't curious to find out what the thing was, so I got.

    Similarscram, go (entry), leave

    Note

    A verb of departure that can make a whole sentence on its own: Get! or Go on, get! It mostly appears as a brusque command, often repeated for force, with the tone of chasing someone out the door. Narrators also use it in the past tense. So I got simply means so I left.

19. 19
    hear fullyverbtransitive

    To hear or catch something completely, especially words said quickly or quietly.

    The announcer spoke so fast that I didn't get the name of the next station.

    The line was bad and I only got half of what he said.

    UsageSorry, I didn't get that can ask for repeating or explaining; add could you repeat it? to be clear.

    Similarcatch, hear, understand

    Note

    Hearing in full, the ear's version of catching: what is missing is the words themselves, not their meaning.

20. 20
    botherverbcolloquialtransitive

    To have a strong effect on someone, especially by annoying or upsetting them or wearing them down.

    What really gets me is that he never once said thank you.

    Twelve-hour shifts get you after a while, no matter how much you love the job.

    UsageCommon in the frame what (really) gets me is... to introduce something annoying.

    Similarannoy, bother, irritate

21. 21
    prankverbcolloquialtransitive

    To catch someone out or trick them successfully.

    My little brother hid behind the door and jumped out, and he got me good.

    They tried to get me with a fake invoice, but I checked.

    UsageCommon in you got me, said when someone has tricked or surprised you.

    Similarfool, trick, catch

22. 22
    puzzleverbcolloquialtransitive

    To perplex or stump someone, leaving them without an answer.

    The last riddle in the book has really got me, and I've been thinking for an hour.

    Crosswords never get me, but this one has.

    UsageSet phrase: you've got me there admits you have no answer.

    Similarstump, puzzle, baffle, beat, floor

23. 23
    verbcolloquialtransitive

    To catch someone, especially a wrongdoer, or to take revenge on them.

    The detective spent ten years trying to get the man behind the robberies.

    She ate my last slice of cake, but I'll get her back tomorrow.

    UsageGet someone back or get back at someone means take revenge.

    Similarcatch, nab, nail

24. 24
    verbcolloquialtransitive

    With an impersonal you or one as subject, to say that something exists, occurs, or is typical somewhere.

    Up in the mountains, you get snow even in late May.

    One gets that sort of pattern in Celtic ornament.

    Similarfind, see

    Note

    An impersonal construction in which the pronoun names no one in particular. You get some very rude people here means such people are found here, much as there are would. One does the same job in a more formal key, as when Lawrence Alloway speaks of the kind of thing one gets in Celtic ornamentation. Source

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

    • Lawrence Alloway used the wording ‘the kind of thing one gets in Celtic ornamentation’. guggenheim.org
25. 25
    make laughverbtransitive

    Of a joke, a line or a performer, to make someone laugh.

    That bit where the dog falls off the couch gets me every time!

    I knew the punch line would get him, so I waited until he set his coffee down.

    Similarkill, amuse

    Note

    Laughter as an ambush: a joke that gets you catches you off guard. It gets me every time can also carry the "trick" meaning, and only context separates the two. One is a prank that keeps working, the other a line that never stops being funny.

26. 26
    verbcolloquialtransitive

    Of a blow, a thrown object, or a shot, to hit someone, often in a specific part of the body.

    The bullet got him in the shoulder, and he dropped to the ground.

    Keep your guard up, or his left hook will get you on the chin.

    Similarhit, catch, strike

    Oppositemiss

27. 27
    killverbeuphemistictransitive

    To kill someone, used euphemistically.

    If the gang finds him before the police do, they'll get him, and he'll never testify.

    The hitman got him outside the hotel.

    Similarkill, murder, eliminate

    Note

    A euphemism built on the catching sense: to get someone is to reach them, and the hearer fills in the rest. That vagueness suits menace, as in they're coming to get you, Barbara. It also suits comic violence: Weird Al's murderous Santa got Dancer and Prancer. Source

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

    • The quoted words occur in Night of the Living Dead. radiolab.org
    • Weird Al's murderous Santa gets Dancer and Prancer in The Night Santa Went Crazy. en.wiktionary.org
28. 28
    big catchnouncolloquialcountable

    Something obtained or won, especially a prized acquisition.

    Landing that interview was a big get for the magazine.

    Two Olympic athletes in one issue: both were real gets.

    UsagePairs with land and big: land a big get.

    Similarcoup, catch, score, acquisition

    Note

    A noun for the prize itself, typically something hard to secure. It pairs naturally with land and big, as in Karen Yampolsky's 2007 novel, where the narrator lands a big get for the magazine. Source

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

    • The narrator describes landing a big get for the magazine. en.wiktionary.org
29. 29
    nouncountable

    In tennis and similar sports, a difficult return or block of a shot, a ball reached that looked out of reach.

    Her get on the drop shot brought the crowd to its feet.

    The match turned on a couple of impossible gets at the net.

    Similarsave, return, retrieve

    Note

    Tennis talk for a defensive feat. The get is credited to the player who returns or blocks a shot that seemed likely to win the point, not to the one who hit it. It is kept for retrievals that look out of reach, which is why it is usually a word of praise.

30. 30
    Jewish divorcenouncountable

    A formal written document that ends a marriage under Jewish religious law.

    Without a get, she could not remarry in an Orthodox synagogue.

    The rabbinical court heard several cases this year of husbands refusing to grant gets.

    UsageUsed with give: the husband gives his wife a get.

    Note

    This word belongs to Jewish religious law and comes from Hebrew; it only shares its spelling with the everyday verb. The husband gives or grants the get to his wife, so a husband who withholds it can keep her from remarrying within that law. In Israel, rabbinic courts can jail a man until he agrees to grant one. Source

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 6 facts

    • A get is a document that ends a marriage under Jewish religious law. familylegalcare.org
    • The English noun comes from Hebrew. en.wiktionary.org
    • The religious noun and the everyday verb have separate origins. en.wiktionary.org
    • The husband gives the get to his wife. chabad.org
    • Withholding a get can prevent the wife from remarrying under Jewish religious law. familylegalcare.org
    • Israeli rabbinic courts can imprison a husband to compel him to grant a get. en.wikipedia.org
31. 31
    nasty personnoundialectalIrelandUKcountable

    A contemptible person; another word for git, usually said as an insult.

    Put my crisps back, you greedy get!

    Her brother's a right get when he's had a few pints.

    UsageComes in you + adjective + get: you greedy get.

    Similargit

    Note

    A regional insult heard in parts of the UK and Ireland, where get and git are simply two spellings of one sneer. Outside those regions, git is the form most readers will recognize. Source

    Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

    • The insult get is regional in parts of the UK and Ireland. en.wiktionary.org
    • Get and git are variant forms of the same insult. en.wiktionary.org
32. 32
    noun

    Offspring, especially the young fathered by a particular male animal; also, the line of descent a person or animal comes from.
33. 33
    verb

    To treat a vacuum tube with a getter, a substance that soaks up the last traces of gas inside it.
34. 34
    verbarchaic

    To become the father of a child.

    I had rather to adopt a child than get it.

    c. 1603, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”
35. 35
    verbarchaic

    To learn something well enough to know it by heart, sometimes followed by out.

    it being harder with him to get one sermon by heart, than to pen twenty

    1662, John Fell, The life of the most learned
36. 36
    verbcolloquial

    Used with a pronoun, as in "get you" or "get her", to mock someone for showing off or acting grand.
37. 37
    verbobsolete

    To come out ahead by gaining money, goods or other advantage.

    We mourn, France smiles; we lose, they daily get.

    1591, William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”
38. 38
    verb

    To find out an amount or value by measuring it, as when taking a reading.
39. 39
    noundated

    A child, often one born to parents who were not married.

    ‘You were a high lord's get. Don't tell me Lord Eddard Stark of Winterfell never killed a man.’

    1999, George R.R. Martin, A Clash of Kings