Word.ws English Dictionary

get one's act together

get one's act together verb: to become serious, organized, worthwhile, etc.

Verb

get one's act together (third-person singular simple present gets one's act together, present participle getting one's act together, simple past got one's act together, past participle (UK) got one's act together or (US) gotten one's act together)

  1. (idiomatic, slang) To become serious, organized, worthwhile, etc.
    • It didn't look like he'd ever get his act together, but eventually the project got going.
    • Thanet got its act together after the August 3 accident, with no more major accidents over its remaining history.2021 September 8, Dr Joseph Brennan, “Electric tramways at the heart of our seaside story”, in RAIL, number 939, page 59

Synonyms of get one's act together

Forms of get one's act together

third-person singular presentgets one's act together
present participlegetting one's act together
pastgot one's act together
past participle UKgot one's act together
past participle USgotten one's act together

Origin of get one's act together

Figuratively, a comparison with the achieved result and the preparation involved in creating, producing, rehearsing, and polishing a theatrical act or similar performance.

Questions about get one's act together

What does get one's act together mean?
Get one's act together means to become serious, organized, worthwhile, etc.
What part of speech is get one's act together?
Get one's act together is a verb.
What is the past tense of get one's act together?
The past tense of get one's act together is got one's act together.

Words near get one's act together in the dictionary

  1. get on with you
  2. get one over on
  3. get one up on
  4. get one's
  5. get one's a into g
  6. get one's act together
  7. get one's affairs in order
  8. get one's arms around
  9. get one's arse in gear
  10. get one's arse into gear
  11. get one's ashes hauled

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: get one's act together (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-get one's act together.ogg.

Cite this entry: “get one's act together.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/get_one%27s_act_together. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.