Word.ws English Dictionary

one's back is up

one's back is up phrase: one is offended or angry.

Phrase

one's back is up

  1. (idiomatic) One is offended or angry.
    • My back is up, and I cannot hear the thought of wooing him any farther, nor would do it, though he were as pig a gentleman (look you) as Lucifer himself.1835, William Hayley, The Life and Letters of William Cowper
    • And I want you to be nice to Patty. For some reason her back is up.2011, Jeannie Watt, The Baby Truce, →ISBN, page 84

Origin of one's back is up

From the way a cat, when angry, raises or arches its back.

Questions about one's back is up

What does one's back is up mean?
One's back is up means one is offended or angry.
What part of speech is one's back is up?
One's back is up is a phrase.

Words near one's back is up in the dictionary

  1. one word leads to another
  2. one'd
  3. one's
  4. one's ass is dragging
  5. one's ass is grass
  6. one's back is up
  7. one's bark is worse than one's bite
  8. one's belly thinks one's throat has been cut
  9. one's blood is up
  10. one's blood runs cold
  11. one's born days

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: one's back is 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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-one's back is up.ogg.

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