Word.ws English Dictionary

got back

got back is the simple past of get back.

got back is the past participle of get back.

Meaning of get back

Verb

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

  1. (intransitive) Return to where one came from.
    • When I get back from holiday, I expect the house to be tidy.
  2. (intransitive) Reply (to someone); follow up (with someone).
    • I'll get back to you on that by Wednesday.
  3. (transitive) To retrieve (something); to have (something) returned.
    • I lent her my guitar over the Christmas holidays, and will get it back when the term starts.
  4. (often, transitive) To do something to hurt or harm (someone) who has hurt or harmed one; to take revenge.
    • I'll get you back for this!
  5. (Canada, US, colloquial, transitive) To repay; to return the favor.
    • People are afraid to let you know how much money they have because they don't want to turn into the “Bank of Michelle.” I can understand that. Don't want to get jacked into a “Hey, can I borrow five hundred bucks till next week dude? I'm a little short. I'll get you back though.”2005, James O'Neill, The Gas Can, →ISBN, page 57

Questions about got back

What is got back the simple past of?
Got back is the simple past of get back.

Words near got back in the dictionary

  1. got around
  2. got around to
  3. got at
  4. got away
  5. got away with murder
  6. got back
  7. got back at
  8. got back on the horse that bucked one
  9. got back to
  10. got behind
  11. got bent out of shape

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: got back (page history and authors); get 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.

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Cite this entry: “got back.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/got_back. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.