Word.ws English Dictionary

have one's act together

have one's act together verb: to be serious, organized, worthwhile, etc.

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic) To be serious, organized, worthwhile, etc.
    • Teresa also shows us that to have one's act together and stay within the boundaries of conventional piety is not the goal of the spiritual life.2014, Susan R. Pitchford, The Sacred Gaze: Contemplation and the Healing of the Self, →ISBN, page 67
    • He was determined to wear his best shirt in the hopes of seeming like he had his act together.2014, Billups Allen, The League, →ISBN

Synonyms of have one's act together

Forms of have one's act together

third-person singular presenthas one's act together
present participlehaving one's act together
past participlehad one's act together
pasthad one's act together

Origin of have one's act together

Figuratively, a comparison with the achieved result and the preparation involved in creating, producing, rehearsing, and polishing a theatrical act or similar performance.

Questions about have one's act together

What does have one's act together mean?
Have one's act together means to be serious, organized, worthwhile, etc.
What part of speech is have one's act together?
Have one's act together is a verb.
What is the past tense of have one's act together?
The past tense of have one's act together is had one's act together.

Words near have one's act together in the dictionary

  1. have off
  2. have on
  3. have one foot in the grave
  4. have one foot on a banana peel
  5. have one more time
  6. have one's act together
  7. have one's ass handed to one
  8. have one's back up
  9. have one's bread buttered for life
  10. have one's bread buttered on both sides
  11. have one's cake and eat it

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: have one's act together (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-have one's act together.ogg.

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