get v.
1. in senses of movement.
(a) to start, to commence, with an implication of urgency, e.g. ‘get moving’, ‘get walking’ etc.
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 29 Jan. 2/4: A saloonkeeper [...] offered to bet five dollars that he could make [the mule] ‘git’. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Bulletin (Sydney) 7 Mar. 13/2: Well, what with two summonses for ’sault; a warrant out for me on the vag.; and two ’filiation orders overdoo, it’s about time I got. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 18 Apr. 9/3: Tommy Hudson is also here doing big business; Emelie Melville still in Calcutta, and ‘yours truly’ off to Persia as soon as the camp disperses […] We were wanting to dodge the hot weather and ‘get’ before May. | |
| Truth (Sydney) 14 Jan. 6/6: After shouting twice (pulling out a roll of notes to pay for the drinks) he said, ‘let’s get’. | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Marvel XV:377 Jan. 6: Now is the time for you to ‘get.’ See? You jump ashore. | |
| Truth (Perth) 22 Apr. 7/4: The name she calls the servant / When she told her for to get / They were not for publication . | |
![[NZ]](/static/img/flags/nz.png "New Zealand") | Truth (Wellington) 22 May 7: She coyly replied [...] ‘If you don’t like it you can --- well lump it,’ and then invited him to ‘git’. | |
| diary 18 July 🌐 Orders to hand at 11 a.m. to ‘get’. ‘Got’ at 2 p.m. | |
| Secrets of Harry Bright (1986) 389: ‘We gotta git!’ Maybelle squeaked. |
(b) (orig. US) to go away; esp. as get! excl.
| ‘Joe Bowers’ in Bryant’s Songs from Dixie’s Land 26: I had such wolfish feelings [...] But the thoughts of my dear Sally soon made them feelins git. | |
| ‘A Trip to Salmon’ in et al. Songs of the Amer. West (1968) 119: You had better git, you Californian bummer. | |
 | Graceville Transcript 25 Aug. n.p.: He presented a cocked revolver and told them to get, and they got [DA]. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 29 Aug. 6/4: Alack! Val. Brown, for Fortune’s frown – / You now have got to ‘git’. | |
| Brandon Union (VT) 4 Nov. 1/6: ‘Git!’ and John Smith ‘gits’, accompanied by one of his inquisitors. | |
| Robbery Under Arms (1922) 236: So the muchacha went back on yer — snakes alive! [...] I reckon you’re bound to git. | |
| A New Mexico David 93: We’ve agreed to give yo’ one hour to git. | |
| Marvel XV:377 Jan. 6: Now is the time for you to ‘get.’ See? You jump ashore [...] make your way to London. | |
| W.A. Sun. Times (Perth) 1 Dec. 1/1: ‘John’ promptly appropriated the £10 given to the girl to ‘get’ with. | |
| Monroe City Democrat (MO) 10 July 7/2: They were told to git and they got. | |
| ‘New Church’ Times 22 May (2006) 75/1: Some citizen of Wipers who stood not on the order of his going, but got. | |
| Limey 29: You can git. Don’t try any tricks. | |
| Call Me When the Cross Turns Over (1958) 75: She can get! | |
| Pop. 1280 in Four Novels (1983) 387: Are you gonna get or not? | |
| S.R.O. (1998) 31: Were they simply telling me to pack up and git? | |
| ‘Desert Breakdown, 1968’ in Back in the World 140: ‘We got out of there and I mean we got’. | |
| Spidertown (1994) 98: The he remembered Cristalena [...] sitting like a a weeping saint figure, a dark silhouette of silent suffering. [...] ‘I gotta get,’ he said. | |
| Donnybrook [ebook] ‘We best get while we still can’. |
2. in senses meaning to attack, lit. or fig., physically or verbally.
(a) to surpass.
| Pierce Egan’s Life in London 2 Jan. 389/2: Ward felt quite satisfied that he had ‘got’ his opponent a ‘tiny bit,’ and went to work . | |
| Hoosier Mosaics 39: Yes, sir, he’s got me! He’s about three lengths ahead o’ me, as these boss fellers says, an’ I don’t know but what I’m distanced. |
(b) to trick, to cheat, to victimize.
| College Words (rev. edn) 232: got. [...] when a student or any one else has been cheated or taken in, it is customary to say, he was got. | |
| Lantern (N.O.) 22 Sept. 4: That’s where you got us, darling. | |
| A. Mutt in Blackbeard Compilation (1977) 152: Oh, stung! They got me! They set me back! I was clipped for a hundred! | |
| Potash and Perlmutter 17: He’s got us, Barney. Louis Grossman’s got us and no mistake. | |
| Film Fun 24 Apr. 20: The cry of the hearty filberts was: ‘We’ve got ’em!’. | |
| Golden 23 Oct. 1: You can’t get me, I’m down and you’re out! [...] We’re up to your tricks and ours too. | |
| ‘Let Me at the Enemy’ Coll. Stories (1990) 36: If’n it hadn’t been for him puttin’ all them fancy ideas in my queen’s head he never woulda got me. | |
| Boys from Binjiwunyawunya 313: I got the big mug for a thousand dollars. |
(c) to succeed in killing for retribution, to ‘do for’.
| Saddle and Mocassin 138: They’ll get you one of these days, Colonel, when you are driving around in your wagon. | |
| Boss 314: I’ll do him before I’m through! [...] I’ll get him, if I have to go wit’ him! | |
| S.F. Bulletin Nov. q. in (1926) 322: I told Black several days ago that I would protect myself and ‘get’ him if he tried to ‘get’ me. | |
| Home to Harlem 75: I been very much thinking that Nije Gridley done git you. | |
| ‘Spanish Blood’ in Spanish Blood (1946) 16: Well . . . they got him, Sam. They got him at last. | |
| Really the Blues 179: From the way they eyed me, I knew they all meant to get me, now or five minutes from now. | |
| Savage Night (1991) 30: If they didn’t get me in one place, they’d do it in another. | |
| Die Nigger Die! 81: I make it very clear that if you get me, I’m gonna get me somebody. | |
| Chopper From The Inside 16: If they ever get me, it will be in the back. | |
| Robbers (2001) 101: We gonna get ’em, he said, voice cracking [...] Ain’t never gonna make the jail. | |
| ‘Know Better’ 🎵 Next day shh got-got by shh (Bow) / Gang done got down two this week; that's shh and shh / They should know better. |
(d) to get even with, to take vengeance on, e.g. I’ll get you, just you wait and see.
| Prison, Camp and Pulpit 136: He asked me if I would go out with him in the streets and get the men who had attacked him. | |
| ‘The Passing of Abraham Shivers’ Hell Fer Sartain and Other Stories n.p.: The boys was a-goin’ up the river one night to git ole Dave Hall fer trickin’ Rosie Branham into evil. | |
| Day Book (Chicago) 22 July 2/1: They both pointed to the recent announcement of County Judge Owens to ‘get’ Ald. Kenna. | |
| Babbitt (1974) 115: I’m going to get those guys, one of these days. | |
| (con. 1900s–10s) 42nd Parallel in USA (1966) 325: He got pretty blue and said he guessed the bosses’d get him soon. | |
| Call It Sleep (1977) 277: ‘Now I’ll get you! [...] Now I’ll get you!’ And David knew they were doomed. | |
| Corner Boy 213: Don’t nobody care but the D.A. and Trashwagon and all those studs out to get me. | |
| Adolescent Boys of East London (1969) 152: My mates said, ‘You going to get him?’ sort of thing. So of course I said ‘Yes, if I see him’. | |
![[Can]](/static/img/flags/can.png "Canada") | Go-Boy! 83: I’ll get you good this time, you red-neck bastard! | |
| Twits (1982) 42: ‘I’ll get you for this!’ shouted Mrs Twit. | |
| in Living Dangerously 97: If they cut you and don’t kill you, they’ll be hunted until you get them. | |
| (con. 1943) Coorparoo Blues [ebook] ‘You’re gone, pal. I’ll get you for this’. | |
| Shame the Devil 243: This sonofabitch comes around we’re gonna get him. Right? |
(e) to seduce, to have sexual intercourse.
| My Secret Life (1966) I 116: Fred returned and I had difficulties in getting her often. | |
| Lustful Memoirs of a Young and Passionated Girl 17–18: Hay was getting all he wanted of the girl and her mother found it out and she put up the job on him. | |
| Manhattan Transfer 114: That’s the kid gits me for the askin any night. | |
| Redheap (1965) 46: ‘Now, if you’d gone on dancing, you might never have got her’ . | |
| Only a Game 6: He can imagine the dialogue later. ‘Who was that stuff we saw you with, Duke?’ ‘Mighty tasty’ ‘You getting any of that, Duke?’. | |
| Queens’ Vernacular 88: anal intercourse [...] get one (‘Hon, I’m not out to get nobody... I’m the one who wants to get gotten!’). | |
| Burn 50: I can’t tell about the farmer’s wife I did get, proper slut. | |
| Random Family 315: Comments like When I’m gonna get that? and When can I slap on that? |
(f) (also get a body) to kill, to wound.
| Bar-20 iii: The man who had fired the shot was dead. Buck got him immediately after he had shot Johnny. | |
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | First Hundred Thousand (1918) 202: Their snipers go potting away all night, but they don’t often get anybody. | |
| ‘Guns of Gangland’ Gangster Stories Dec. 🌐 Give me a hand here quick — they ‘got’ Eddie —. | |
| ‘Murder Marsh’ in Shadow Oct. 🌐 ‘We was to hear from him later. We didn’t.’ ‘You mean Culeth got him?’ ‘That’s the way it looked.’. | |
| Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye in Four Novels (1983) 96: ‘So they got Toko,’ he said. | |
| et al. Dict. of Today’s Words 77: Get a body – to kill someone. | |
| Way Home (2009) 233: Whoever did it [i.e. a murder] needs to be got. | |
| ‘She Died with Grace’ in ThugLit Jan. [ebook] ‘Carlo, they got Sal. Sal’s dead’. |
(g) to corner someone, to get hold of, to track down.
| Boy’s Own Paper 10 Nov. 82: I rather think we’ve got you just where we want you, now. | |
| Enemy to Society 274: Never mind the mistake, bo! — I got you now, Mister Steve Adams. | |
| Adventures of Jimmie Dale (1918) 29: ‘I’ll get the man that did this,’ gritted Jimmie Dale between his teeth. ‘I’ll get him!’. | |
| Phila. Eve. Bulletin 5 Oct. 40/4: Here are a few more terms and definitions from the ‘Racket’ vocabulary: [...] ‘get,’ to capture. | |
| Don’t Get Me Wrong (1956) 109: We got him once [...] on a carryin’ concealed weapons charge. | |
| Criminal (1993) 106: I sure hope you git him. | |
| Gaily, Gaily 96: I’m going to get Teddy Shedd [...] That murdering little squirt will go to trial with a broken jaw and an ear missing. | |
| No Beast So Fierce 277: They won’t get you. I don’t think they know who you are. | |
| Carlito’s Way 2: Get that Po’ Rican! | |
| In La-La Land We Trust (1999) 32: Take it easy Mr. Tillman [...] We’re not out to get you. |
(h) to attack, to hit.
| Gang in Yablonsky (1962) n.p.: They used to ‘get’ the ‘niggers’ as they came from the stock yards at Forty-seventh and Racine. | |
| (trans.) Big Show 37: I bellowed my joy into the radio [...] ‘I got one, I got one! Jesus, I got one of them! | |
| Long and the Short and the Tall Act I: Good old Taff! Show us your leek! Get him! | |
| Big Rumble 52: ‘Get the bastard!’ he heard one say. ‘Waste him!’ another said. | |
| Picture Palace 119: Another muttered, ‘Get him’. | |
| Down and Out 61: I’ll still get you, you black bastard. | |
| Mr Blue 379: I dunno who got him. He doesn’t seem to be hurt bad. | |
| (ed.) ‘Drill Slang Glossary’ at Forensic Linguistic Databank 🌐 Got - attacked, robbed. |
(i) (US black) to attract someone powerfully .
| If He Hollers 158: Then I said, ‘Look, baby, you really got me’. |
(j) to tease, to make someone look foolish.
| Semi-Tough 43: ‘You’re a lippy son of a bitch but you’re a good-looking son of a bitch,’ he said to Shake. ‘You got me then,’ Shake said. ‘Sure did’. | |
| Reach 45: Don’t worry. We’ll get this fuck. | |
| Crumple Zone 31: Alv’s been got good with that gag. |
3. to eat a meal.
| Mere Luck Ch. i: Here, get your dinner, my lad. |
4. to receive as (judicial) punishment, to get one’s deserts [abbr. SE get one’s deserts].
| (con. 1905–25) Professional Thief (1956) 19: Did you hear what Jerry Myers got? | |
| Autobiog. of My Dead Brother 59: ‘[I]f you did order the firebombing you ought to cool it, because if somebody died you would get homicide.’. |
5. (also get on to) to notice, to look at; usu. as derog. imper., e.g. get her!
| N.Z. Truth 31 Jan. 2/8: Do you get the twist and twirl [...] going down the other Peggy Pryde (the other side) of the frog and toad. | |
| in Zwilling TAD Lex. (1993) 54: Did you get that manager with the trick coat — looks like a million. | |
| (con. 1899) Roving and Fighting 7: Groups of soldiers greeted us [...] with sarcastic humor. ‘Look at the Johnny-come-latelies!’ ‘Get on to the guy with the high-water pants!’. | |
| Tramp and Other Stories 83: ‘Did you get that stink?’ ‘I got it,’ the other said. | |
| Harder They Fall (1971) 92: Get him, get him! [...] What are ya, a goddam primmer-donner? | |
| On the Waterfront (1964) 99: Jesus, get the talking machine. | |
| One Day of the Year (1977) II ii: wacka: Get the walk, will ya? Get the walk on it! mum: Cocky? Look at him! | |
| With Hooves of Brass 10: ‘Well, stone the crows!’ he said softly. ‘Get the blonde hair-do - and the shape!’. | |
| Sheepshagger 59: Danny and LL?r do the ‘woooo, get him’ noises and Ianto laughs. |
6. (US) to perceive.
| Man Who Was Not With It (1965) 107: I don’t get him as a thief at all [...] It’s the habit that did it. |
7. to understand, to appreciate.
| Carlito’s Way 104: ‘[W]e’ll check it out and if you come up wrong we’ll stick your head in a bucket of acid, capisce?’ ‘I got you, Mr. Mason’ . | |
| Woodward and Bernstein 35: [I]t took Bernstein longer to ‘get’ Woodward and to come around. | |
| Adventures 97: ‘What do you need, man?’ I asked him [. . . .] ‘Just play me “the Mexican,”’ he said [...] ‘I got you guys, Joe’ . |
8. (US black) to meet, to make contact with.
| Clueless [film script] I’ll get you after school. | |
| Tuff 252: ‘Winston [...] About that twenty?’ ‘I’ll get you tomorrow. Come by the crib.’. |
9. (US black) to (re)pay.
| Blacktop Wasteland 94: ‘I can’t pay you up front, but I’ll get you on the back end’. |
In exclamations
an excl. of derision, mockery (both affectionate and otherwise).
| Naked Lunch (1968) 21: Get her! | |
| ‘The Picnic’ Hancock’s Half-Hour [Radio script] Ooh blimey, get him! | |
| Gay Detective (2003) 19: A heavy voice mimicked: ‘“Please, sir, do hold still.” Get her!’. | |
| Exit 3 and Other Stories 28: ‘Get him!’ said one of the soldiers. | |
| Queens’ Vernacular 95: get her (exclam, dated, ’40s) command to take a gander at someone who is trying his damndest to be charming and witty but winding up a fiasco. Equivalent to “who does he think he is?” get her bar tavern frequented by gossipy homosexuals who tend to live in the past. | |
| Quiet Fire 174: It was very common to use words like ‘camp,’ ‘trade,’ or ‘Get her!’. | |
| Observer Mag. 12 Sept. 94: I was like ‘Get her!’ And the waiter said, ‘The lady of the moment.’ I was loving it. |
now listen! take note! this is amazing!
| Scarface Ch. i: You’re not seein’ Al any more. Get that, bab. | |
| ‘Goldfish’ Red Wind (1946) 149: ‘Beginning to get to you, eh?’ she said. ‘Well get this. Peeler Mardo is rooming at my house.’. | |
| Fowlers End (2001) 234: Before he got into his big car, he shouted: ‘And I hate the thought of bloody worms. Get that for a start!’. | |
| Skyvers I ii: Get this thickie: they don’t teach nothing that’s any good to us. | |
| Glitter Dome (1982) 206: But get this! | |
| Lucky You 212: ‘Get this,’ she said. ‘We’re in the hot-air balloon, the yellow one from before, and all of a sudden you’re asking for half the lottery money.’. |
a teasing, mocking phr., used to deflate someone who is seen as showing off, overdressing etc; thus get me!, teasing oneself; the tone is usu. stereotypically effeminate/homosexual.
| Knocking the Neighbors 129: ‘Get me!’ said Wilbur’s wife, dropping wearily to a Divan in the Style of Louis Quatorze. | |
| (con. 1944) Gallery (1948) 137: Well, get you, Mabel, the first British sergeant tittered. | |
| et al. Gay Girl’s Guide 10: get you!: Who do you think you’re kidding! (‘Get . . .’ is used in an infinite number of phrases). | |
| Epitaph for George Dillon Act II: Get us with our intellectual sets on! And we’re not even tight. | |
| letter 20 Jan. in Mangan John Gielgud’s Letters (2004) 223: Turned down 25,000 dollars to do Potting Shed on TV [...] Get me! | |
| in Encounter n.d. in Norman’s London (1969) 64: Get you, darling, all done up in drag, anyone would think you were a palone. | |
| Crust on its Uppers 26: Get you, dearie! | |
| Maledicta II:1+2 (Summer/Winter) 120: ‘Get you, Mary’ (the use of proper names in camp slang), and studies of poufs and dykes and aunties and chickens and flashers and leather queens and other denizens of the sexual subcultures. | |
| London Fields 119: She did a fish mouth, and her eyes lengthened. ‘Get you. Aren’t you the one.’. |
SE in slang uses
In compounds
a thief.
| Sporting Times 24 Mar. 1/2: As old Fogo, the veteran fob-diver, dashed up a blind alley off Drury Lane, he ran into and nearly capsized a more youthful get-a-bit. | |
| ‘No Separation’ Sporting Times 3 Jan. 1/3: Tongues were busy in that ancient and accepted rub-a-dub / Hight the ‘Slate and Pencil,’ home of getabits. |
describing armed robbers, pertaining to hold-up with a gun.
| Collier’s 3 Dec. 9: Dancing Dan is one of the best lone-hand git-’em-up guys in the world [HDAS]. | |
| ‘A Job for the Macarone’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 692: These git-’em-up characters. |
see git-go n.
1. (US black, also git-high) any form of drug.
| House of Slammers 73: Not only do we have pot, but any other kinda ‘git-high’ you want. | |
| Iced 223: Can’t celebrate the Nation’s Birthday without some get-high!!! | |
| Night Gardener 208: Drinking champagne and smoking a little get-high. |
2. (US drugs) a drug user’s equipment.
| Central Sl. 25: get high A hype outfit. A hype kit. |
(US black/N.Z.) an outfit, a suit of clothes.
| Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 49/1: get-out set of clothes. | |
| Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988]. |
In phrases
1. see also separate entries.
2. see also under relevant n. or adj.
see sense 2f
1. to irritate, to annoy.
| ‘On a Bender’ in Benno and Some of the Push 75: Then fer an orful moment he’d sorter totter on the brink iv gettin’ across them. | |
| Lonely Plough (1931) 113: I came down in the car for fear you got across with him. He was a bit above himself to-night. | |
| Now You Know 101: I know you and she slightly got across each other in the restaurant. |
2. (US black) to succeed.
| Adventures of Jimmie Dale (1918) II xii: Turn down that gas jet a little! You’ve got across with it so far — but you can’t stand a searchlight. | |
| Kingdom of Swing 262: If you expect to get across and make the crowd feel like dancing, you have to give out with something in every number you play. | |
| ‘Story in Harlem Sl.’ in Novels and Stories (1995) 1002: The way he figured it after the peep was that he had plenty to get across and maybe do a little more cruising besides. | |
| Runnin’ Down Some Lines 239: get across 1. Succeed in life. |
3. to seduce.
| Jubb (1966) 49: Little Sally Frost. Christ I must get across that one again. | |
| Runnin’ Down Some Lines 239: get across [...] 3. Talk seductively and persuasively to a member of the opposite sex. 4. Get one to agree to sexual relations. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | (con. 1930s) Emerald Square 340: This was what Kelly [...] had had in Dolphins Barn, when he had got across Eileen Og. |
4. to acquire status.
| Runnin’ Down Some Lines 239: get across [...] 2. Acquire status. |
1. to make a large amount of money.
| Jimmy Brockett 49: He didn’t dress as though he was getting among it and the furniture he’d put in the house where he and Lil, his wife, lived, wasn’t a patch on mine. | |
| Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 85: get amongst it Enjoy engagement, usually sexual, but can be a booze session or making money. |
2. to seduce a woman.
| see sense 1. |
1. see get up v.1 (3)
(US black) to nag, to pressurize.
| Negro Youth 75: When I was small I played with white boys and girls, but when I became about fifteen I noticed they had a different feeling toward me [...] At fifteen I believe the girls’ parents got behind them. We had grown up. | |
| Tally’s Corner 111: if Leroy ever married Charlene [...] it would only be because [...] Charlene’s mother, Malvina, and her social worker were ‘getting behind him’ (i.e., putting pressure on him). |
1. to suffer delirium tremens.
| Dead Bird (Sydney) 9 Nov. 2/2: Two more thought they had ‘em again, and [...] swore by all that was good that they would never again taste or touch liquor of any kind. | |
| Regiment 9 May 10: [cartoon caption] Bibulous Major: ‘Heavens! what’s this? I haven’t got ’em again, surely’. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 10 Mar. 28/2: Thomas seemed to be astounded and commenced to caress her [...], but the lady would have none of him, and declared that he was ‘in the horrors.’ True enough, the tragedy was only another version of ‘got ’em again.’. |
2. to be mad.
| DSUE (8th edn) 460/1: since ca. 1910. |
3. to be frightened.
| (con. 1914–18) Songs and Sl. of the British Soldier. |
to suffer punishment; to be attacked, killed.
| No Lights, No Sirens 157: ‘You’s a cunt, punk-ass nigga. I see you out here again you gonna get got, you cryin’ little bitch’. |
see under it n.1
see under lay v.1
a phr. meaning you understand? often used as an all-purpose phr. to punctuate sentences.
| [ | | Indoor Sports 27 Aug. [synd. cartoon] Yo know me Al. Yo might as well be dead as out ob style — Get me bo. Get me]. |
| Giant Swing 50: ‘Lemme go or I’ll pop you one. I’m a fighter, get me?’. | |
| in Vice Mag. at Hyperdub.com 🌐 Everyone’s got the tendency to do bad things, getme, but we’re doing it the legal way as well. [...] Everything has a positive and negative effect, getme? |
(Aus.) are you with me? do you understand?
| Making of an Englishman in DSUE (1984). | |
| Healesville & Yarra Glen Guardian (Vic.) 14 Oct. 4/5: I object to that squawkin’ coot callin’ her names [...] it’s got ter stop, Get me, Steve? | |
| Final Count 117: We shall follow her. Do you get me, Steve? |
see under best v.
see getting much?
to lose emotional control.
| (con. 1910s) Young Lonigan in Studs Lonigan (1936) 29: Wouldn’t she get one if she saw us in here smokin’! |
see under it n.1
see under one n.1
see under one n.1
see under one n.1
see under one n.1
1. (orig. US) to suffer in some way.
| Tales of the Ex-Tanks 350: Well, I got mine, there and then [...] and I got it right. | |
| A. Mutt in Blackbeard Compilation (1977) 7: I gotta tell the old lady and then I’ll get mine. | |
| My Life out of Prison 78: The next time you start up a business without permission you’ll get yours, and get it good and plenty. | |
| West Broadway 126: By gollies, it's done my heart good to see all these building fellers getting theirs. | |
| ‘The False Burton Combs’ in Ruhm Hard-Boiled Detective (1977) 21: ‘Here’s where you stop,’ he growled, ‘and here’s where you get yours [...] the killing of a rat like you is the only business I’ve got on the moors this night.’. | |
| Dundee Courier 8 Oct. 11/6: Now don’t you high-hat me, or you’ll get yours too. | |
| Low Company 29: Peggy told them to go to hell and lay off or they’d get theirs. So they got sore. | |
| Sydney Morn. Herald 11 Dec. 7/3: The individual ‘got his’. | |
| Amboy Dukes 29: You’ll get yours! | |
| Teen-Age Gangs 19: Maybe the fat slob’ll get his. | |
| Naked Lunch (1968) 196: I reckon he’s had his too. | |
| Burn, Killer, Burn! 135: Some day you’re going to get yours. | |
| You Flash Bastard 242: If you got involved with felons, looking to earn a nice few quid [...] then you had to take your chances. If that meant the payoff was getting yours, well too bad. | |
| Hot House 320: ‘We should jump that prick in the parking lot and whip his ass.’ ‘Don’t worry. He’ll get his. It’s just a matter of time’. | |
| A Few Kind Words and a Loaded Gun 259: The Norwood gang finally got theirs one Sunday night in 1982. |
2. (orig. US) to be killed, to die, usu. by accident or through violence.
| Bucky O’Connor (1910) 244: They figured to make a clean job and bump off York, too. From what York says Leroy has got his. | |
| Smoke Bellew (1926) 92: Oh, you’ll get yours as soon as I finish with your pardner, you little hog-wallopin’ snooper, you. | |
| Adventures of Jimmie Dale (1918) I ii: Metzer got his early in de afternoon — see? | |
| ‘Nightmare Town’ in Nightmare Town (2001) 33: Harker — another doctor, who got his last week. | |
| (con. WW1) Patrol 3: ‘Muriel’s got his [...] clean through left lung’ . | |
| Limey 22: He ‘got his’ during [...] a hold-up. | |
| ‘Heat’ in Mann Coast to Coast 132: ‘Well, he’s got his,’ he said indifferently. | |
| Really the Blues 101: I saw the kissers of most all those good-natured sporty guys in the papers [...] they all got theirs sooner or later. | |
| Henderson The Rain King 184: That big Henderson finally got his [...] He probably bullied some natives and they stabbed him. | |
| ‘Forever After’ in Fireworks (1988) 51: Let him get one last look before he gets his. | |
| S.R.O. (1998) 252: ‘But why is Red Mike gonna to get his now [...] Nobody’s ever tried to kill him before’. | |
| Confessions of Proinsias O’Toole 65: They sometimes manage to snatch a tit-bit through the door or window – that’s how the beagles got theirs. | |
| Trainspotting 82: He’d git his one day. Nothing wis surer. | |
| Royal Family 507: He gonna get his. Something is gonna happen to him. |
3. (orig. US black) to get one’s share, usu. of material pleasures, to get what one deserves; usu. as get mine.
| Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 357: Hully chee [...] Here’s where he gets his. | |
| Wildcat 226: ‘I’ve got mine.’ The sailor who had lost turned away from the group. | |
| Bottom Dogs 122: The men on both sides of the river were getting theirs while the going was good. | |
| ‘The Little Blond Fellow’ in Short Stories (1937) 69: Sure you’re getting yours? | |
| Web and the Rock 402: Every man, the blind could tell you as they struggled through the subway door while there was still room for one more visionless sardine, was ‘getting his’. | |
| What Makes Sammy Run? (1992) 213: I always said he’d sock the jackpot, but I sure never thought he’d get his in the movies. | |
| Property Of (1978) 31: ‘I got mine tonight,’ said the Dolphin. | |
| ‘Gin and Juice’ 🎵 You got to get yours but fool I gotta get mine. | |
| Guardian Guide 6–12 Nov. 5: The same year found the similarly payola-powered James Belushi out to ‘get his’. |
4. (US) to get sexual satisfaction.
| On the Yard (2002) 120: He got his shining shoes. Every stroke of the brush increased his excitement until he rocked and moaned [...] crooning to the shoes like a lover. | |
| The World Don’t Owe Me Nothing 120: Sometimes when I was playing I’d have a woman ask me, ‘Will you go home with me?’ I'd say, ‘Yes,’ and then another would come in [...] and we'd make the same setup. [...] I got mine. |
(US) used with a n. to describe an activity.
| Campus Sl. Mar. 4: Get one’s – on – begin the activity specified in the blank: ‘I’m going to back to my room and get my sleep on.’ Get my grub on – eat; Get my eat on – eat; Get my groove on – dance; Get my study on – study, do homework. | |
| No Lights, No Sirens 28: ‘[S]o as long as you fellows are here, why not let two of your older brothers get our KFC on?’. | |
| ‘marisol and skeeter’ in What They Found 191: Then he would play something for the old people who needed to get their shake-shake-shake on. | |
| Atomic Lobster 11: ‘What’cha doin?’ ‘Just gettin’ my Serge on.’. | |
| Straight Dope [ebook] [T]he midday museum crowd is getting their art on. |
see get it up v. (1)
see sense 5
see get off at... v.
to get away with; to cheat in a deal.
| ‘The Brain Goes Home’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 219: If The Brain gets out on three hundred G’s per year for love, he is running his love business very economically. | |
| Cherry 238: That night Gary got out on me for $180. It was a loss but not a total disaster. |
(Aus.) to place a bet, esp. as exhortation by a bookmaker or two-up organizer; thus set, having placed a bet.
| Sunday Sun (Sydney) 17 May 1/5: Side-wagers are being made. ‘’Ere, stop that,’ warns the Czar. ‘I’m not set yet’. | |
| Worker (Wagga Wagga, NSW) 28 Jan. 5/1: [S]o the two-up boxer nightly grunts out: ‘Get set! Get set!’. | |
| Referee (Sydney) 6 May 5/7: There were 16 runners in the 14.2 Handicap, and the first offer of, ‘6 to 4 the field!’ caused a panic amongst would-be supporters of Skylark, the majority of whom were compelled to lay 6 to 4 ‘on’ to get set. | |
| Jonah [ebook] ‘Get set! - get set!’ cried the boxer, lolling in his seat with a nonchalant air; and in a twinkling a bright heap of silver lay in front of each player, the wagers made with the gaffers opposite. | |
| Dly Examiner (Grafton, NSW) 30 mar. 8/2: Bookmakers were not too numerous at the meeting; and in one event, the Novice Handicap, the commissioners behind Powerite complain they could not get set at anything near a decent price. | |
| We Were the rats 117: At one end I heard cries of, ‘A hundred in the guts’, ‘A hundred mils to see ’em go, ‘Are yous all set on the side?’ and the old ‘Come in, spinner!’. | |
| Vision Splendid 229: ‘All set on the side?’ asked Mark Hall. There was no reply. ‘Then I’m bringing the spinner in’. | |
| Aussie Eng. (1966) 53: He invites others to ‘get set on the side’, and side-bets are made. | |
| It’s Your Shout, Mate! 25: The keeper said, ‘Centre set. All set on the side?’. | |
| Cop It Sweet! 39: GET SET: To be covered for a wager. | |
| Canberra Times (ACT) 14 Sept. 5/4: The people who were put out the most were the owners and trainers of horses who had travelled from Sydney and country areas to race here and were then unable to get set because the bookmakers refused to work. | |
| ‘An Artful Dodger’ in What Do You Reckon (1997) [ebook] Ben could always get set on the nod with Uncle Art, no worries. |
see under it n.1
see get ’em
see under get up v.1 (3)
1. (drugs) to obtain drugs.
| Drug Abuse: A Resource Guide. | |
| ‘Prison Language’ in Michaels & Ricks (1980) 526: When cash runs short and a teahead cannot make a connection or get through [etc.]. | |
| ONDCP Street Terms 10: Get through — Obtain drugs. |
2. (UK black/gang) to overcome a rival.
| (ed.) ‘Drill Slang Glossary’ at Forensic Linguistic Databank 🌐 Get through - defeat, ‘deal with’, e.g. enemies. |
(orig. Aus.) a popular greeting between men.
| Aus. Lang. 124: The jocular greeting between man and man, getting’ any? which draws such set replies as climbing trees to get away from it! got to swim under water to dodge it! and so busy I've had to put a man on! | |
| Jimmy Brockett 174: ‘Getting any, smacker?’ I’d ask him. More often than not he’d come back at me, ‘I’ve got to climb trees to get away from it’. | |
| The Roy Murphy Show (1973) 103: Morning, Col. Getting any? That’s the stuff. | |
| Animal House 97: Get any? Hah? Little hose job? Hah? Hah? | |
| G’DAY! 37: Among single Australian males the facetious ‘Getting any lately?’ should be responded to with: ‘Yeah, hadda putta man on’. |
(US) a male-to-male greeting.
| ‘The Big Knockover’ Story Omnibus (1966) 298: We shook hands, exchanged How’s everything and Getting muches, and he sat at my table. | |
| I Can Get It For You Wholesale 171: You getting much? | |
| Flesh Peddlers (1964) 260: Gettin’ much, Bitsy? | |
| (con. 1950s) ‘The Fifties’ in Eisen Age of Rock 2 (1970) 103: After a date they would ask, especially if he had a rep as a hot ticket, an ass man: Get much? | |
| Glitz 257: How you doing, Ricky? You getting much? |
In exclamations
(orig. US black) a general excl. of disbelief, dismissal, I don’t believe you! you must be joking! don’t be silly! who do you think you’re fooling?
| Kipps (1952) 28: ‘Get out,’ he gasped incredulously, ‘She ain’t your girl, Sid Pornick’. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 26 Sept. 15/1: ’Ello, I s’y, git outer this. / What, ’ave yeh come? Oh, give’s a kiss, / Yeh dear ole darlin’ Boshter Jim! | |
| Chicago May (1929) 25: If the guy squawked, the bouncer would say, ‘Get out of here! We ain’t bothering about youse and your troubles with your wife’. | |
| Vice Trap 126: ‘The deal’s knocked, anyway.’ ‘Get out of here,’ I said. | |
| Essential Lenny Bruce 50: Get out of here with that horseshit! | |
| Semi-Tough 250: ‘Did he ever tell you that he thought you and I would make a better twosome, lovewise, than he and I?’ ‘Get out of here,’ I said. | |
| (con. 1940s) Hold Tight (1990) 72: Get out of here. I was just asking. | |
| Makes Me Wanna Holler (1995) 193: Man, get outta here! That guy don’t look like Wanda! | |
| Guardian Rev. 25 Feb. 6: If you asked me back in ’91 would I ever be in a movie as a soldier [...] I’d have said get the hell out of here. Hell, no! | |
| ‘Authenti Cityin ThugLit Sept. [ebook] ‘[A]in’t even Italian and he's gonna tell us what real Italian food is? Get the fuck outta here with that’. | |
| Blood Miracles : ‘G’way outta that, Cusak’. |