Word.ws English Dictionary

getting someone's goat

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

Meaning of get someone's goat

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic, informal) To annoy or infuriate someone.
    • It really gets my goat when inconsiderate people drop litter in public.

Questions about getting someone's goat

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

Words near getting someone's goat in the dictionary

  1. getting someone there
  2. getting someone's back
  3. getting someone's back up
  4. getting someone's dander up
  5. getting someone's drift
  6. getting someone's goat
  7. getting someone's Irish up
  8. getting someone's nanny
  9. getting someone's nanny-goat
  10. getting someone's number
  11. getting someone's shirt out

Source and license

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