Word.ws English Dictionary

had one's back up

had one's back up is the simple past and past participle of have one's back up.

Meaning of have one's back up

Verb

have one's back up (third-person singular simple present has one's back up, present participle having one's back up, simple past and past participle had one's back up)

  1. (idiomatic) To be angry or defensive.
    • He's had his back up all morning. There's no point in trying to talk to him.
    Synonyms:
    get one's dander up, get one's Irish up

Questions about had one's back up

What is had one's back up the simple past and past participle of?
Had one's back up is the simple past and past participle of have one's back up.

Words near had one's back up in the dictionary

  1. had on
  2. had one foot on a banana peel
  3. had one more time
  4. had one's act together
  5. had one's ass handed to one
  6. had one's back up
  7. had one's bread buttered for life
  8. had one's cake and ate it too
  9. had one's cake and eaten it too
  10. had one's ducks in a row
  11. had one's ears lowered

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: had one's back up (page history and authors); have one's back 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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