Meanings
present singular third person gets someone's dander up · participle present getting someone's dander up · past got someone's dander up · UK participle past got someone's dander up · US participle past gotten someone's dander up
- idiomaticTo anger or annoy someone.
Sorry, I'm sorry Geoffrey / but it gets my goat / It gets my dander right up!
2009, “Fighting Trousers”, in Paul "Professor Elemental" Alborough, Tom Caruana (lyrics), The Indifference Engine, performed by Professor Elemental2 more examples
Miss Jessie ain't afeard of the great, wicked, white man heself, when she gets her dander up; […]
1846, Harriot F. Curtis, Jessie's Flirtations, page 89[…] so it wasn't to be expected that I should not feel disagreeable when the two got their dander up, and went into such a tantrum with each other.
1854, Ann Sophia Stephens, High Life in New York, page 42Synonyms: annoy and Thesaurus:enrage
Synonyms & antonyms
verbTo anger or annoy someone.
Origin
US mid-19th century. Uncertain origin.
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with get someone's dander up
All rhymes →Cite this entry
get someone's dander up. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/get%20someone's%20dander%20up
“get someone's dander up.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/get%20someone's%20dander%20up. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “get someone's dander up,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/get%20someone's%20dander%20up.
Source: get someone's dander up on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.