get someone's back up

English

Pronunciation

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Verb

get someone's back up (third-person singular simple present gets someone's back up, present participle getting someone's back up, simple past got someone's back up, past participle (UK) got someone's back up or (US) gotten someone's back up)

1. (idiomatic) To annoy or anger someone.

   That joke really got my boss's back up.

   • 1970, James N. Casavis, Principal's Guidelines for Action in Parent Conferences‎^[1], →ISBN, page 121:

     Telling someone that her child can and should be doing better and not offering some solutions immediately gets my back up.

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:annoy and Thesaurus:enrage

Related terms

• have one's back up