Word.ws English Dictionary

getting back at

getting back at is the present participle and gerund of get back at.

Meaning of get back at

Verb

get back at (third-person singular simple present gets back at, present participle getting back at, simple past got back at, past participle (UK) got back at or (US) gotten back at)

  1. (idiomatic) To retaliate against; to take revenge on.
    • She put toothpaste in his shoes to get back at him for the frog he left in her refrigerator.
    Synonyms:
    get back on, get one's own back on, take revenge, retaliate, avenge

Questions about getting back at

What is getting back at the present participle and gerund of?
Getting back at is the present participle and gerund of get back at.

Words near getting back at in the dictionary

  1. getting at
  2. getting away
  3. getting away with
  4. getting away with murder
  5. getting back
  6. getting back at
  7. getting back on the horse that bucked one
  8. getting back to
  9. getting behind
  10. getting bent out of shape
  11. getting better

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: getting back at (page history and authors); get back at (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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