get

Etymology 1

From Middle English geten, from Old English ġietan (whence also English yet), from Proto-Germanic *getaną. Cognate with Old Norse geta, Old High German pigezzan (“to uphold”), Gothic 𐌱𐌹𐌲𐌹𐍄𐌰𐌽 (bigitan, “to find, discover”)), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰed- (“to seize”).

verb

1. (ditransitive) To obtain; to acquire.
   I'm going to get a computer tomorrow from the discount store.
   Lance is going to get Mary a ring.
2. (transitive) To receive.
   I got a computer from my parents for my birthday.
   You need to get permission to leave early.
   He got a severe reprimand for that.
   Afore we got to the shanty Colonel Applegate stuck his head out of the door. His temper had been getting raggeder all the time, and the sousing he got when he fell overboard had just about ripped what was left of it to ravellings. 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 8, in Mr. Pratt's Patients, page 175
3. (transitive, in a perfect construction, with present-tense meaning) To have. See usage notes.
   I've got a concert ticket for you.
4. (transitive) To fetch, bring, take.
   Can you get my bag from the living-room, please?
   I need to get this to the office.
5. (copulative) To become, or cause oneself to become.
   I'm getting hungry; how about you?
   I'm going out to get drunk.
   November 1, 1833, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Table Talk His chariot wheels get hot by driving fast.
   Afore we got to the shanty Colonel Applegate stuck his head out of the door. His temper had been getting raggeder all the time, and the sousing he got when he fell overboard had just about ripped what was left of it to ravellings. 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 8, in Mr. Pratt's Patients, page 175
6. (transitive) To cause to become; to bring about.
   That song gets me so depressed every time I hear it.
   I'll get this finished by lunchtime.
   I can't get these boots off (or on).
   Then there came a reg'lar terror of a sou'wester same as you don't get one summer in a thousand, and blowed the shanty flat and ripped about half of the weir poles out of the sand. We spent consider'ble money getting 'em reset, and then a swordfish got into the pound and tore the nets all to slathers, right in the middle of the squiteague season. 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 1, in Mr. Pratt's Patients, page 6
7. (transitive) To cause to do.
   Somehow she got him to agree to it.
   I can't get it to work.
   Anstruther laughed good-naturedly. “[…] I shall take out half a dozen intelligent maistries from our Press and get them to give our villagers instruction when they begin work and when they are in the fields.” 1927, F. E. Penny, chapter 5, in Pulling the Strings
8. (transitive) To cause to come or go or move.
   I got him to his room.
   Get thee behind me. 1881, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, “Retro me, Sathana !”, in Ballads and Sonnets, →OCLC, page 252
9. (intransitive, with various prepositions, such as into, over, or behind; for specific idiomatic senses see individual entries get into, get over, etc.) To adopt, assume, arrive at, or progress towards (a certain position, location, state).
   The actors are getting into position.
   When are we going to get to London?
   I'm getting into a muddle.
   We got behind the wall.
10. (transitive) To cover (a certain distance) while travelling.
    to get a mile
11. (intransitive) To begin (doing something or to do something).
    We ought to get moving or we'll be late.
    After lunch we got chatting.
    I'm getting to like him better now.
12. (transitive) To take or catch (a scheduled transportation service).
    I normally get the 7:45 train.
    I'll get the 9 a.m. [flight] to Boston.
13. (transitive) To respond to (a telephone call, a doorbell, etc).
    Can you get that call, please? I'm busy.
14. (intransitive, followed by infinitive) To be able, be permitted, or have the opportunity (to do something desirable or ironically implied to be desirable).
    I'm so jealous that you got to see them perform live!
    The finders get to keep 80 percent of the treasure.
    Great. I get to clean the toilets today.
15. (transitive, informal) To understand. (compare get it)
    Yeah, I get it, it's just not funny.
    I don't get what you mean by "fun". This place sucks!
    I mentioned that I was feeling sad, so she mailed me a box of chocolates. She gets me.
16. (transitive, informal) To be told; be the recipient of (a question, comparison, opinion, etc.).
    "You look just like Helen Mirren." / "I get that a lot."
    Do you mind? Excuse me / I saw you over there / Can I just tell you ¶ Although there are millions of / Cephalophores that wander through this world / You've got something extra going on / I think you probably know ¶ You probably get that a lot / I'll bet that people say that a lot to you, girl. 2011, “You Probably Get That A Lot (Elegant Too Remix)”, in They Might Be Giants (music), Album Raises New and Troubling Questions
17. (informal) To be. Used to form the passive of verbs.
    He got bitten by a dog.
    Of particular importance is the bureaucratic organization of European judiciaries. The judiciary is a career. You start at the bottom and get assigned and promoted at the pleasure of your superiors. 2003, Richard A. Posner, Law, Pragmatism, and Democracy, page 95
18. (transitive) To become ill with or catch (a disease).
    I went on holiday and got malaria.
19. (transitive, informal) To catch out, trick successfully.
    He keeps calling pretending to be my boss—it gets me every time.
20. (transitive, informal) To perplex, stump.
    That question's really got me.
21. (transitive) To find as an answer.
    What did you get for question four?
22. (transitive, informal) To bring to reckoning; to catch (as a criminal); to effect retribution.
    The cops finally got me.
    I'm gonna get him for that.
23. (transitive) To hear completely; catch.
    Sorry, I didn't get that. Could you repeat it?
24. (transitive) To getter.
    I put the getter into the container to get the gases.
25. (now rare) To beget (of a father).
    Walter had said, dear God, Thomas, it was St fucking Felicity if I'm not mistaken, and her face was to the wall for sure the night I got you. 2009, Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall, Fourth Estate, published 2010, page 310
26. (archaic) To learn; to commit to memory; to memorize; sometimes with out.
    to get a lesson;  to get out one's Greek lesson
    it being harder with him to get one sermon by heart, than to pen twenty 1662, John Fell, The life of the most learned, reverend and pious Dr. H. Hammond, page 96
27. (imperative, informal) Used with a personal pronoun to indicate that someone is being pretentious or grandiose.
    Get her with her new hairdo.
    Brother, get her! Draped on a bedspread made from three kinds of fur! 1966, Dorothy Fields (lyrics and music), “If My Friends Could See Me Now”
    Money's pouring in somewhere, because Churchgate's got lovely new stone setts, and a cultural quarter (ooh, get her) is promised. 2007, Tom Dyckhoff, Let's move to ..., The Guardian
28. (intransitive, informal, chiefly imperative) To go, to leave; to scram.
    Get, now — get! — before I call an officer and lay a charge against ye. 1991, Theodore Dreiser, T. D. Nostwich, Newspaper Days, University of Pennsylvania Press, page 663
    I had a sneaking suspicion that it wasn't no flashlight and I wasn't too curious, just then, to find out what would happen if he did more than wave it at me, so I got. I went back about twenty feet or so and watched. 1952, Fredric Brown, Mack Reynolds, Me and Flapjack and the Martians
    'Go on, get. You look a state. We can't let Leo see you like that.' 2010, Sarah Webb, The Loving Kind, Pan Macmillan
    Now go on, get! Get! Get! (she chases Joanne out the door with the hammer.) 2012, Paul Zindel, Ladies at the Alamo, Graymalkin Media
    "[…] and then I'll switch over to the police band to know when the bacon's getting ready to stick its nose in. When I tell you to get, you get, understand?" Calamity asks as she retapes the earbud into her ear. 2016, April Daniels, Dreadnought, Diversion Books
29. (euphemistic) To kill.
    They’re coming to get you, Barbara.
30. (intransitive, obsolete) To make acquisitions; to gain; to profit.
31. (transitive) To measure.
    Did you get her temperature?
32. (transitive) To cause someone to laugh.
    It gets me every time!

noun

1. (dated) Offspring.
   At the time when I am making these observations, one of his colts is the first favourite for the Derby; and it will be recollected, that a filly of his get won the Oaks in 1808. 1810, Thomas Hornby Morland, The genealogy of the English race horse, page 71
   You must admit that the bastard get of Paul Atreides would be no more than juicy morsels for those two [tigers]. 1976, Frank Herbert, Children of Dune
   ‘You were a high lord's get. Don't tell me Lord Eddard Stark of Winterfell never killed a man.’ 1999, George R.R. Martin, A Clash of Kings, Bantam, published 2011, page 755
2. Lineage.
3. (sports, tennis) A difficult return or block of a shot.
4. (informal) Something gained; an acquisition.
   I had reconnected with the lust of my life while landing a big get for the magazine. 2008, Karen Yampolsky, Falling Out of Fashion, page 73

Etymology 2

Variant of git.

noun

1. (Britain, regional) Synonym of git (“contemptible person”)
   Kylie: Oi, Bono! You lazy get! Have you finished my song yet? 13 Jan 1990, David Quantick, Steven Wells, “Is It Rock Art Or Is It Nart?”, in New Musical Express

Etymology 3

From Hebrew גֵּט (gēṭ).

noun

1. (Judaism) A Jewish writ of divorce.
   In Israel, rabbinic courts can imprison men until they acquiesce and grant gets to their wives. 2013, Dan Cohn-Sherbok, George D. Chryssides, Dawoud El-Alami, Love, Sex and Marriage, page 143