Word.ws English Dictionary

get one's knickers in a twist

Syllables: get one's knick·ers in a twistUK/ˌɡɛt wʌnz ˈnɪ.kəz ɪn‿ə ˈtwɪst//ˌɡɪt wʌnz ˈnɪ.kɚz ɪn‿ə ˈtwɪst/

get one's knickers in a twist verb: to become overwrought or unnecessarily upset over a trivial matter.

Verb

get one's knickers in a twist (third-person singular simple present gets one's knickers in a twist, present participle getting one's knickers in a twist, simple past and past participle got one's knickers in a twist)

  1. (Ireland, UK, humorous, idiomatic, informal) To become overwrought or unnecessarily upset over a trivial matter.
    • Swiss bank gets knickers in a twist over dress code guidelines [title]2011 January 17, “Swiss bank gets knickers in a twist over dress code guidelines”, in The Guardian, sourced from Associated Press, →ISSN

Synonyms of get one's knickers in a twist

All synonyms of get one's knickers in a twist

Forms of get one's knickers in a twist

third-person singular presentgets one's knickers in a twist
present participlegetting one's knickers in a twist
past participlegot one's knickers in a twist
pastgot one's knickers in a twist

Words that rhyme with get one's knickers in a twist

43 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about get one's knickers in a twist

What does get one's knickers in a twist mean?
Get one's knickers in a twist means to become overwrought or unnecessarily upset over a trivial matter.
What part of speech is get one's knickers in a twist?
Get one's knickers in a twist is a verb.
How do you pronounce get one's knickers in a twist?
Get one's knickers in a twist is pronounced /ˌɡɛt wʌnz ˈnɪ.kəz ɪn‿ə ˈtwɪst/ (UK).
What is the past tense of get one's knickers in a twist?
The past tense of get one's knickers in a twist is got one's knickers in a twist.

Words near get one's knickers in a twist in the dictionary

  1. get one's jollies
  2. get one's juices flowing
  3. get one's kicks
  4. get one's kit off
  5. get one's knickers in a knot
  6. get one's knickers in a twist
  7. get one's leg over
  8. get one's load on
  9. get one's marching orders
  10. get one's mind out of the gutter
  11. get one's monkey up

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: get one's knickers in a twist (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-get one's knickers in a twist.wav.

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