get the goods on
get the goods on verb: to acquire knowledge or develop evidence that reveals the truth about someone's character or behavior, especially criminal behavior.
Verb
get the goods on (third-person singular simple present gets the goods on, present participle getting the goods on, simple past got the goods on, past participle (UK) got the goods on or (US) gotten the goods on)
- To acquire knowledge or develop evidence that reveals the truth about someone's character or behavior, especially criminal behavior.
- "Bob, they've got the goods on you. There's a warrant out."1914, Peter B. Kyne, chapter 19, in The Long Chance
- "You've got the goods on me. I can't deny I'm the man the police are lookin' for."1921, William MacLeod Raine, chapter 10, in Tangled Trails
Forms of get the goods on
| third-person singular present | gets the goods on |
|---|---|
| present participle | getting the goods on |
| past | got the goods on |
| past participle UK | got the goods on |
| past participle US | gotten the goods on |
| alternative form | have the goods on |
Questions about get the goods on
- What does get the goods on mean?
- Get the goods on means to acquire knowledge or develop evidence that reveals the truth about someone's character or behavior, especially criminal behavior.
- What part of speech is get the goods on?
- Get the goods on is a verb.
- What is the past tense of get the goods on?
- The past tense of get the goods on is got the goods on.
Words near get the goods on in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: get the goods on (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 the goods on.ogg.
Cite this entry: “get the goods on.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/get_the_goods_on. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.