Word.ws English Dictionary

getting someone's back up

getting someone's back up is the present participle and gerund of get someone's back up.

Meaning of get someone's back up

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic) To annoy or anger someone.
    • That joke really got my boss's back up.

Questions about getting someone's back up

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

Words near getting someone's back up in the dictionary

  1. getting someone at it
  2. getting someone for a Tartar
  3. getting someone in a line
  4. getting someone there
  5. getting someone's back
  6. getting someone's back up
  7. getting someone's dander up
  8. getting someone's drift
  9. getting someone's goat
  10. getting someone's Irish up
  11. getting someone's nanny

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: getting someone's back up (page history and authors); get someone's back 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.

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