Word.ws English Dictionary

got a leg up

got a leg up is the simple past and past participle of get a leg up.

Meaning of get a leg up

Verb

get a leg up (third-person singular simple present gets a leg up, present participle getting a leg up, simple past got a leg up, past participle (UK) got a leg up or (US) gotten a leg up)

  1. (idiomatic) To get a boost or a lift.
    • I can climb over the fence if I get a leg up from you.
  2. (idiomatic) To gain some advantage; to get a head start.
    • He hopes that all the extra advertising will allow him to get a leg up on the competition.

Questions about got a leg up

What is got a leg up the simple past and past participle of?
Got a leg up is the simple past and past participle of get a leg up.

Words near got a leg up in the dictionary

  1. got a grip
  2. got a handle on
  3. got a hold of
  4. got a jump on
  5. got a kick out of
  6. got a leg up
  7. got a life
  8. got a line on
  9. got a load of
  10. got a move on
  11. got a rise

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: got a leg up (page history and authors); get a leg 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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Cite this entry: “got a leg up.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/got_a_leg_up. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.