Word.ws English Dictionary

got on someone's case

got on someone's case is the simple past and past participle of get on someone's case.

Meaning of get on someone's case

Verb

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

  1. (informal) To lecture, berate, or complain to somebody, especially to find fault or criticize.
    • His boss was always getting on his case about his standards of dress, even though he worked well and seldom left the back room.
    Synonyms:
    harangue, harass

Questions about got on someone's case

What is got on someone's case the simple past and past participle of?
Got on someone's case is the simple past and past participle of get on someone's case.

Words near got on someone's case in the dictionary

  1. got off with
  2. got on
  3. got on at
  4. got on like a house on fire
  5. got on someone's bad side
  6. got on someone's case
  7. got on someone's grill
  8. got on someone's last nerve
  9. got on someone's nerves
  10. got on someone's tits
  11. got on someone's wick

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: got on someone's case (page history and authors); get on someone's case (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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