Word.ws English Dictionary

getting one's own back

getting one's own back is the present participle and gerund of get one's own back.

Meaning of get one's own back

Verb

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

  1. To avenge oneself.
    • When he spurns her, Julia is outraged to hear it is because she did not measure up to his secret list of 10 bullet-pointed attributes for an ideal bride. To get her own back, she invites her best friend, penniless clergyman’s daughter Selina Dalton (Freida Pinto), up to town to ensnare Malcolm, by...2022 August 24, Peter Bradshaw, “Mr Malcolm’s List review – Regency romcom served with cake-icing of irony”, in The Guardian

Questions about getting one's own back

What is getting one's own back the present participle and gerund of?
Getting one's own back is the present participle and gerund of get one's own back.

Words near getting one's own back in the dictionary

  1. getting one's load on
  2. getting one's marching orders
  3. getting one's mind out of the gutter
  4. getting one's monkey up
  5. getting one's oats
  6. getting one's own back
  7. getting one's own way
  8. getting one's panties in a bunch
  9. getting one's panties in a pretzel
  10. getting one's panties in a wad
  11. getting one's poop together

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: getting one's own back (page history and authors); get one's own back (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 one's own back.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/getting_one%27s_own_back. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.