Meaning & use
get my goat
Last updated
UK/ɡet maɪ ˈɡəʊt/
US/ɡet maɪ ˈɡoʊt/
Meaning
phraseidiominformal
To annoy someone, especially in a way that makes them irritated rather than truly furious.
Grammar: The possessive changes to match the person: it gets my goat, it got her goat.
Patterns
- get someone's goat
- something gets someone's goat
It really gets my goat when people leave shopping carts in the middle of the parking lot.
Her constant humming got his goat by the end of the trip.
Don't let their teasing get your goat.
Word forms
| third person singular | gets my goat |
|---|---|
| past tense | got my goat |
| past participle | got my goat (also gotten my goat in American English) |
| -ing form | getting my goat |
Common combinations
- really get someone's goat
- Slow internet really gets my goat.
- try to get someone's goat
- He tried to get her goat by mocking her team.
- it gets my goat when
- It gets my goat when people talk in the cinema.
- not let it get your goat
- Smile and don't let it get your goat.
Synonyms and how they differ
- annoy
- Annoy is the plain, neutral word, whereas get my goat is informal and more vivid.
- irritate
- Irritate is a little more formal and clinical than the idiom.
- drive me up the wall
- This is stronger and suggests repeated annoyance.
- bug
- Bug is equally informal but lighter, suggesting a minor nuisance.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: get my goat or scapegoat?
get my goat vs scapegoat
To scapegoat someone is to blame them unfairly; getting someone's goat means annoying them.
Practice
Which sentence uses the idiom correctly?
Choose one answer.
Gets my goat means annoys me. The other sentences use the words literally or in the wrong order.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “get my goat”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.
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