get someone's Irish up

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

Verb

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

(potentially offensive) To anger or annoy someone.
- "It's so crazy I've got to believe they're either paranoid or trying to get his Irish up so he will run [and split the anti-Carter vote in the primaries]. My guess is it's paranoia."1979, David Garth, New York Magazine, page 14

third-person singular present	gets someone's Irish up
present participle	getting someone's Irish up
past	got someone's Irish up
past participle UK	got someone's Irish up
past participle US	gotten someone's Irish up

From a supposed propensity of Irish people to be easily and severely angered.

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

Adapted from Wiktionary: get someone's Irish 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: 2026-09-02

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

Cite this entry: “get someone's Irish up.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/get_someone%27s_irish_up. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.