get someone's goat

verb
/ˌɡɛt ˈsʌmwʌnz ˈɡəʊt/UK/ˌɡɛt ˈsʌmwʌnz ˈɡoʊt/US

Etymology

Uncertain; it has been suggested that the term may be derived from French prendre la chèvre (literally “to take the goat”), or refer to the stealing of a goat mascot from a military unit, etc.

  1. derived from prendre la chèvre

Definitions

  1. To annoy or infuriate someone.

    • It really gets my goat when inconsiderate people drop litter in public.
    • If he had legged it on his own account, because what he heard me say got his goat, I could understand that.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for get someone's goat. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA