Word.ws English Dictionary

getting the hang of

getting the hang of is the present participle and gerund of get the hang of.

Meaning of get the hang of

Verb

get the hang of (third-person singular simple present gets the hang of, present participle getting the hang of, simple past got the hang of, past participle (UK) got the hang of or (US) gotten the hang of)

  1. (colloquial, idiomatic) To begin to understand or manage at a basic level; to learn to handle with some skill.
    • Driving feels awkward when you’re new to it, but it’s easy once you get the hang of it.

Questions about getting the hang of

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

Words near getting the hang of in the dictionary

  1. getting the door
  2. getting the drawers
  3. getting the drift
  4. getting the drop on
  5. getting the goods on
  6. getting the hang of
  7. getting the hint
  8. getting the idea
  9. getting the job done
  10. getting the last laugh
  11. getting the lead out

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: getting the hang of (page history and authors); get the hang of (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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Cite this entry: “getting the hang of.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/getting_the_hang_of. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.