Word.ws English Dictionary

get a leg up

get a leg up verb: to get a boost or a lift.

Verb

get a leg up (third-person singular simple present gets a leg up, present participle getting a leg up, simple past got a leg up, past participle (UK) got a leg up or (US) gotten a leg up)

  1. (idiomatic) To get a boost or a lift.
    • I can climb over the fence if I get a leg up from you.
  2. (idiomatic) To gain some advantage; to get a head start.
    • He hopes that all the extra advertising will allow him to get a leg up on the competition.

Forms of get a leg up

third-person singular presentgets a leg up
present participlegetting a leg up
pastgot a leg up
past participle UKgot a leg up
past participle USgotten a leg up

Questions about get a leg up

What does get a leg up mean?
Get a leg up means to get a boost or a lift.
What part of speech is get a leg up?
Get a leg up is a verb.
What is the past tense of get a leg up?
The past tense of get a leg up is got a leg up.

Words near get a leg up in the dictionary

  1. get a hold of
  2. get a horse
  3. get a jag on
  4. get a jump on
  5. get a kick out of
  6. get a leg up
  7. get a life
  8. get a line on
  9. get a load of
  10. get a move on
  11. get a pair

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: get a leg up (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-get a leg up.ogg.

Cite this entry: “get a leg up.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/get_a_leg_up. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.