get Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a return on a shot that seemed impossible to reach and would normally have resulted in a point for the opponent
  2. verb come into the possession of something concrete or abstract
    acquire.
    • She got a lot of paintings from her uncle
    • They acquired a new pet
    • Get your results the next day
    • Get permission to take a few days off from work
  3. verb enter or assume a certain state or condition
    go; become.
    • He became annoyed when he heard the bad news
    • It must be getting more serious
    • her face went red with anger
    • She went into ecstasy
    • Get going!
  4. verb cause to move; cause to be in a certain position or condition
    let; have.
    • He got his squad on the ball
    • This let me in for a big surprise
    • He got a girl into trouble
  5. verb receive a specified treatment (abstract)
    receive; incur; obtain; find.
    • These aspects of civilization do not find expression or receive an interpretation
    • His movie received a good review
    • I got nothing but trouble for my good intentions
  6. verb reach a destination; arrive by movement or progress
    arrive; come.
    • She arrived home at 7 o'clock
    • She didn't get to Chicago until after midnight
  7. verb go or come after and bring or take back
    bring; fetch; convey.
    • Get me those books over there, please
    • Could you bring the wine?
    • The dog fetched the hat
  8. verb go through (mental or physical states or experiences)
    receive; have; experience.
    • get an idea
    • experience vertigo
    • get nauseous
    • receive injuries
    • have a feeling
  9. verb take vengeance on or get even
    fix; pay back; pay off.
    • We'll get them!
    • That'll fix him good!
    • This time I got him
  10. verb achieve a point or goal
    make; have.
    • Nicklaus had a 70
    • The Brazilian team got 4 goals
    • She made 29 points that day
  11. verb cause to do; cause to act in a specified manner
    make; induce; have; cause; stimulate.
    • The ads induced me to buy a VCR
    • My children finally got me to buy a computer
    • My wife made me buy a new sofa
  12. verb succeed in catching or seizing, especially after a chase
    catch; capture.
    • We finally got the suspect
    • Did you catch the thief?
  13. verb come to have or undergo a change of (physical features and attributes)
    acquire; produce; develop; grow.
    • He grew a beard
    • The patient developed abdominal pains
    • I got funny spots all over my body
    • Well-developed breasts
  14. verb be stricken by an illness, fall victim to an illness
    take; contract.
    • He got AIDS
    • She came down with pneumonia
    • She took a chill
  15. verb communicate with a place or person; establish communication with, as if by telephone
    • Bill called this number and he got Mary
    • The operator couldn't get Kobe because of the earthquake
  16. verb give certain properties to something
    make.
    • get someone mad
    • She made us look silly
    • He made a fool of himself at the meeting
    • Don't make this into a big deal
    • This invention will make you a millionaire
    • Make yourself clear
  17. verb move into a desired direction of discourse
    aim; drive.
    • What are you driving at?
  18. verb grasp with the mind or develop an understanding of
    catch.
    • did you catch that allusion?
    • We caught something of his theory in the lecture
    • don't catch your meaning
    • did you get it?
    • She didn't get the joke
    • I just don't get him
  19. verb attract and fix
    catch; arrest.
    • His look caught her
    • She caught his eye
    • Catch the attention of the waiter
  20. verb reach with a blow or hit in a particular spot
    catch.
    • the rock caught her in the back of the head
    • The blow got him in the back
    • The punch caught him in the stomach
  21. verb reach by calculation
    • What do you get when you add up these numbers?
  22. verb acquire as a result of some effort or action
    • You cannot get water out of a stone
    • Where did she get these news?
  23. verb purchase
    • What did you get at the toy store?
  24. verb perceive by hearing
    catch.
    • I didn't catch your name
    • She didn't get his name when they met the first time
  25. verb suffer from the receipt of
    catch.
    • She will catch hell for this behavior!
  26. verb receive as a retribution or punishment
    receive.
    • He got 5 years in prison
  27. verb leave immediately; used usually in the imperative form
    bugger off; fuck off; buzz off; scram.
    • Scram!
  28. verb reach and board
    • She got the bus just as it was leaving
  29. verb irritate
    get under one's skin.
    • Her childish behavior really get to me
    • His lying really gets me
  30. verb evoke an emotional response
    • Brahms's `Requiem' gets me every time
  31. verb apprehend and reproduce accurately
    catch.
    • She really caught the spirit of the place in her drawings
    • She got the mood just right in her photographs
  32. verb earn or achieve a base by being walked by the pitcher
    draw.
    • He drew a base on balls
  33. verb overcome or destroy
    • The ice storm got my hibiscus
    • the cat got the goldfish
  34. verb be a mystery or bewildering to
    mystify; perplex; bewilder; beat; puzzle; pose; amaze; vex; baffle; flummox; stick; stupefy; gravel; nonplus; dumbfound.
    • This beats me!
    • Got me--I don't know the answer!
    • a vexing problem
    • This question really stuck me
  35. verb take the first step or steps in carrying out an action
    begin; start out; set about; start; set out; get down; commence.
    • We began working at dawn
    • Who will start?
    • Get working as soon as the sun rises!
    • The first tourists began to arrive in Cambodia
    • He began early in the day
    • Let's get down to work now
  36. verb undergo (as of injuries and illnesses)
    suffer; sustain; have.
    • She suffered a fracture in the accident
    • He had an insulin shock after eating three candy bars
    • She got a bruise on her leg
    • He got his arm broken in the scuffle
  37. verb make children
    engender; sire; father; mother; bring forth; beget; generate.
    • Abraham begot Isaac
    • Men often father children but don't recognize them

WordNet

Get noun
Definitions
  1. Jet, the mineral. Obs. Chaucer.
Get noun
Etymology
OF. get.
Definitions
  1. Fashion; manner; custom. Obs. Chaucer.
  2. Artifice; contrivance. Obs. Chaucer.
Get transitive verb
Etymology
OE. geten, AS. gitan, gietan (in comp.); akin to Icel. geta, Goth. bigitan to find, L. prehendere to seize, take, Gr. to hold, contain. Cf. Comprehend, Enterprise, Forget, Impregnable, Prehensile.
Wordforms
imperfect Got (obsolete Gat ); past participle Got (Obsolescent Gotten ); present participle & verbal noun Getting
Definitions
  1. To procure; to obtain; to gain possession of; to acquire; to earn; to obtain as a price or reward; to come by; to win, by almost any means; as, to get favor by kindness; to get wealth by industry and economy; to get favor by kindness; to get wealth by industry and economy; to get land by purchase, etc.
  2. Hence, with have and had, to come into or be in possession of; to have. Johnson.
    Thou hast got the face of man. Herbert.
  3. To beget; to procreate; to generate.
    I had rather to adopt a child than get it. Shak.
  4. To obtain mental possession of; to learn; to commit to memory; to memorize; as to get a lesson; also with out; as, to get out one's Greek lesson.
    It being harder with him to get one sermon by heart, than to pen twenty. Bp. Fell.
  5. To prevail on; to induce; to persuade.
    Get him to say his prayers. Shak.
  6. To procure to be, or to cause to be in any state or condition; -- with a following participle.
    Those things I bid you do; get them dispatched. Shak.
  7. To betake; to remove; -- in a reflexive use.
    Get thee out from this land. Gen. xxxi. 13.
    He . . . got himself . . . to the strong town of Mega. Knolles.
    ✍ Get, as a transitive verb, is combined with adverbs implying motion, to express the causing to, or the effecting in, the object of the verb, of the kind of motion indicated by the preposition; thus, to get in, to cause to enter, to bring under shelter; as, to get in the hay; to get out, to make come forth, to extract; to get off, to take off, to remove; to get together, to cause to come together, to collect. Syn. -- To obtain; gain; win; acquire. See Obtain.
Get intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To make acquisition; to gain; to profit; to receive accessions; to be increased.
    We mourn, France smiles; we lose, they daily get. Shak.
  2. To arrive at, or bring one's self into, a state, condition, or position; to come to be; to become; -- with a following adjective or past participle belonging to the subject of the verb; as, to get sober; to get awake; to get beaten; to get elected.
    To get rid of fools and scoundrels. Pope.
    His chariot wheels get hot by driving fast. Coleridge.
    ✍ It [get] gives to the English language a middle voice, or a power of verbal expression which is neither active nor passive. Thus we say to get acquitted, beaten, confused, dressed. Earle. ✍ Get, as an intransitive verb, is used with a following preposition, or adverb of motion, to indicate, on the part of the subject of the act, movement or action of the kind signified by the preposition or adverb; or, in the general sense, to move, to stir, to make one's way, to advance, to arrive, etc.; as, to get away, to leave to escape; to disengage one's self from; to get down, to descend, esp. with effort, as from a literal or figurative elevation; to get along, to make progress; hence, to prosper, succeed, or fare; to get in, to enter; to get out, to extricate one's self, to escape; to get through, to traverse; also, to finish, to be done; to get to, to arrive at, to reach; to get off, to alight, to descend from, to dismount; also, to escape, to come off clear; to get together, to assemble, to convene.
Get noun
Definitions
  1. Offspring; progeny; as, the get of a stallion.

Webster 1913