Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To come into possession or use of; receive.
  • intransitive verb To meet with or incur.
  • intransitive verb To go after and obtain.
  • intransitive verb To go after and bring.
  • intransitive verb To purchase; buy.
  • intransitive verb To acquire as a result of action or effort.
  • intransitive verb To earn.
  • intransitive verb To accomplish or attain as a result of military action.
  • intransitive verb To obtain by concession or request.
  • intransitive verb To arrive at; reach.
  • intransitive verb To reach and board; catch.
  • intransitive verb To succeed in communicating with, as by telephone.
  • intransitive verb To become affected with (an illness, for example) by infection or exposure; catch.
  • intransitive verb To be subjected to; undergo.
  • intransitive verb To receive as retribution or punishment.
  • intransitive verb To sustain a specified injury to.
  • intransitive verb To perceive or become aware of by one of the senses.
  • intransitive verb To gain or have understanding of.
  • intransitive verb To learn (a poem, for example) by heart; memorize.
  • intransitive verb To find or reach by calculating.
  • intransitive verb To procreate; beget.
  • intransitive verb To cause to become or be in a specified state or condition.
  • intransitive verb To make ready; prepare.
  • intransitive verb To cause to come or go.
  • intransitive verb To cause to move or leave.
  • intransitive verb To cause to undertake or perform; prevail on.
  • intransitive verb To take, especially by force; seize.
  • intransitive verb Informal To overcome or destroy.
  • intransitive verb To evoke an emotional response or reaction in.
  • intransitive verb To annoy or irritate.
  • intransitive verb To present a difficult problem to; puzzle.
  • intransitive verb To take revenge on, especially to kill in revenge for a wrong.
  • intransitive verb Informal To hit or strike.
  • intransitive verb Baseball To put out or strike out.
  • intransitive verb To begin or start. Used with the present participle.
  • intransitive verb To have current possession of. Used in the present perfect form with the meaning of the present.
  • intransitive verb Nonstandard To have current possession of. Used in the past tense form with the meaning of the present.
  • intransitive verb To have as an obligation. Used in the present perfect form with the meaning of the present.
  • intransitive verb Nonstandard To have as an obligation. Used in the past tense with the meaning of the present.
  • intransitive verb To become or grow to be.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English geten, from Old Norse geta; see ghend- in Indo-European roots.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Mishnaic Hebrew gēṭ, from Aramaic, from Akkadian giṭṭu, long clay tablet, receipt, document, from Sumerian gíd.da, long.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Hebrew גֵּט (gēṭ).

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Variant of git

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English geten, from Old Norse geta, from Proto-Germanic *getanan (compare Old English ġietan, Old High German pi-gezzan 'to uphold', Gothic bi-gitan 'to find, discover'), from Proto-Indo-European *ghéd- 'to seize' (compare Middle Irish gataim 'I steal', Lithuanian godetis 'to be eager', Russian gadatī 'to guess, suppose', Albanian gjej 'to find', Ancient Greek ktaomai 'to acquire, procure', ktēma 'possession', Old Persian xšathra 'dominion')

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Examples

Comments

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  • Australians are taught to avoid this word at all costs. I remember a teacher in primary school telling me there was no sentence where the word "get" couldn't be replaced by an alternative (implication: superior) word. Being something of a smart-ass, I responded by writing a sentence about the word, making "get" necessary.

    Of course, she was simply urging her students to broaden their vocabularies and, more important, seek out powerful and specific verbs. Good on her!

    (See also Aussie prejudices re gotten.)

    March 30, 2008