Meaning & use
got my goat
Last updated
“got my goat” is a form of “get someone's goat”.
Meaning
phraseidiominformal
To have made me very irritated or annoyed, often by a small but persistent thing.
Grammar: The subject is the thing causing irritation and the possessive changes: it got my goat, it gets her goat.
Patterns
- something gets someone's goat
- something got my goat
His constant interrupting really got my goat.
It got my goat that nobody thanked us for staying late.
The way the neighbors leave their bins out gets my goat every week.
Word forms
| third person singular | gets someone's goat |
|---|---|
| past tense | got my goat |
| past participle | gotten someone's goat |
| -ing form | getting someone's goat |
Common combinations
- really get someone's goat
- Loud chewing really gets my goat.
- always get someone's goat
- Slow drivers always get his goat.
- that got my goat
- That email got my goat, to be honest.
- try to get someone's goat
- He was trying to get my goat, and I did not react.
Synonyms and how they differ
- irritate
- Irritate is neutral and works in any register, while got my goat is informal and a little playful.
- annoy
- Annoy is the plain everyday verb, whereas get someone's goat suggests a lingering, nagging kind of annoyance.
- rile
- Rile suggests stirring someone up into visible anger, which is slightly stronger than getting someone's goat.
- exasperate
- Exasperate is formal and describes intense frustration after repeated provocation.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: got my goat or scapegoat?
got my goat vs scapegoat
A scapegoat is a person blamed for others' mistakes, which is different from simply annoying someone.
Practice
The way he never says thank you really ___ my goat.
Choose one answer.
The idiom is get someone's goat, meaning to irritate. Puts, gives and takes do not form this idiom.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “got my goat”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.