Word.ws English Dictionary

get someone's dander up

get someone's dander up verb: to anger or annoy someone.

Verb

get someone's dander up (third-person singular simple present gets someone's dander up, present participle getting someone's dander up, simple past got someone's dander up, past participle (UK) got someone's dander up or (US) gotten someone's dander up)

  1. (idiomatic) To anger or annoy someone.
    • Miss Jessie ain't afeard of the great, wicked, white man heself, when she gets her dander up; […]1846, Harriot F. Curtis, Jessie's Flirtations, page 89
    • […] so it wasn't to be expected that I should not feel disagreeable when the two got their dander up, and went into such a tantrum with each other.1854, Ann Sophia Stephens, High Life in New York, page 42

Forms of get someone's dander up

third-person singular presentgets someone's dander up
present participlegetting someone's dander up
pastgot someone's dander up
past participle UKgot someone's dander up
past participle USgotten someone's dander up

Origin of get someone's dander up

US mid-19th century. Uncertain origin.

Words that rhyme with get someone's dander up

12 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about get someone's dander up

What does get someone's dander up mean?
Get someone's dander up means to anger or annoy someone.
What part of speech is get someone's dander up?
Get someone's dander up is a verb.
What is the past tense of get someone's dander up?
The past tense of get someone's dander up is got someone's dander up.

Words near get someone's dander up in the dictionary

  1. get someone for a Tartar
  2. get someone in a line
  3. get someone there
  4. get someone's back
  5. get someone's back up
  6. get someone's dander up
  7. get someone's drift
  8. get someone's goat
  9. get someone's Irish up
  10. get someone's motor running
  11. get someone's nanny

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: get someone's dander 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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-get someone's dander up.ogg.

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