Word.ws English Dictionary

getting on someone's case

getting on someone's case is the present participle and gerund of get on someone's case.

Meaning of get on someone's case

Verb

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

  1. (informal) To lecture, berate, or complain to somebody, especially to find fault or criticize.
    • His boss was always getting on his case about his standards of dress, even though he worked well and seldom left the back room.
    Synonyms:
    harangue, harass

Questions about getting on someone's case

What is getting on someone's case the present participle and gerund of?
Getting on someone's case is the present participle and gerund of get on someone's case.

Words near getting on someone's case in the dictionary

  1. getting off with
  2. getting on
  3. getting on at
  4. getting on like a house on fire
  5. getting on someone's bad side
  6. getting on someone's case
  7. getting on someone's grill
  8. getting on someone's last nerve
  9. getting on someone's nerves
  10. getting on someone's tits
  11. getting on someone's wick

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: getting on someone's case (page history and authors); get on someone's case (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:

Cite this entry: “getting on someone's case.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/getting_on_someone%27s_case. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.