Word.ws English Dictionary

having one's back up

having one's back up is the present participle and gerund 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 having one's back up

What is having one's back up the present participle and gerund of?
Having one's back up is the present participle and gerund of have one's back up.

Words near having one's back up in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: having 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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