Word.ws English Dictionary

get medieval

Syllables: get me·die·valUK/ˌɡɛt ˌmɛd.iˈiː.vəl/US/ˌɡɛt mɪdˈi.vəl/

get medieval verb: to become sadistically torturous, especially due to vengeful spite.

Verb

get medieval (third-person singular simple present gets medieval, present participle getting medieval, simple past got medieval, past participle gotten medieval or got medieval)

  1. (US, informal, intransitive) To become sadistically torturous, especially due to vengeful spite.
    • What now? I'll tell you what now. I'm gonna call a couple of hard pipe hittin' niggas to go to work on the homes here with a pair of pliers and a blow-torch. You hear me talkin', hillbilly boy?! I ain't through with you by a damn sight! I'ma get medieval on your ass!1994, Quentin Tarantino, Roger Avary, Pulp Fiction, spoken by Marsellus Wallace (Ving Rhames), Miramax
    • So don't be vain and don't be whiny
      Or else, my brother, I might have to get medieval on your heinie1996, "Weird Al" Yankovic, “Amish Paradise”, in Bad Hair Day

Forms of get medieval

third-person singular presentgets medieval
present participlegetting medieval
pastgot medieval
past participlegotten medieval
past participlegot medieval
alternative formgo medieval

Origin of get medieval

From get (“to become”) + medieval (“relating to medieval dungeon torture methods”); originally merely collocational when attested in the dialogue of the 1994 film Pulp Fiction, but the collocation took on the function of a phrasal verb, entering the lexicon as a term for torturing severely, after it went viral as a consequence of the film's popularity.

Questions about get medieval

What does get medieval mean?
Get medieval means to become sadistically torturous, especially due to vengeful spite.
What part of speech is get medieval?
Get medieval is a verb.
How do you pronounce get medieval?
Get medieval is pronounced /ˌɡɛt ˌmɛd.iˈiː.vəl/ (UK).
What is the past tense of get medieval?
The past tense of get medieval is got medieval.

Words near get medieval in the dictionary

  1. get life
  2. get lost
  3. get lucky
  4. get Mario Karted
  5. get married
  6. get medieval
  7. get misty
  8. get moving
  9. get nowhere fast
  10. get off
  11. get off at Haymarket

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: get medieval (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.

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Cite this entry: “get medieval.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/get_medieval. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.