get someone's goat

present singular third person gets someone's goat · participle present getting someone's goat · past got someone's goat · UK participle past got someone's goat · US participle past gotten someone's goat

1. idiomaticinformalTo annoy or infuriate someone.

   It really gets my goat when inconsiderate people drop litter in public.

   5 more examples

   If he had legged it on his own account, because what he heard me say got his goat, I could understand that.

   1915, Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, chapter XXIII, in Uneasy Money, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton and Company, published 17 March 1916, →OCLC, page 306

   "Unfortunately," said Soames, "there's no such thing as luck in properly regulated assurance, as we shall find, or I'm much mistaken. I shouldn't be surprised if an action lay against the Board for gross negligence!" That had got the Chairman's goat!—Got his goat? What expressions they used nowadays!

   1924 October, John Galsworthy, “The Mark Falls”, in The White Monkey, London: William Heinemann, published November 1924, →OCLC, part II, page 123

   But there's one litte thing that gets my goat, / That certainly strikes a sour note. / It's that Southern Ship who has my place— / With her larger decks and her faster pace.

   1941 May, “Milestone”, in T. Orchard Lisle, editor, The Log, volume 36, number 8, San Francisco, Calif.: Miller Freeman Publishers, →OCLC, page 34

   It sure did get their goat; they turned without saying a word and walked off toward the highway, red-necked, us laughing behind them. I forget sometimes what laughter can do.

   1962 February 1, Ken Kesey, One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Signet Books; 225), New York, N.Y.: New American Library, →OCLC; republished New York, N.Y.: Signet, New American Library, February 1963, →OCLC, page 95

   Sometimes people are quite simply intent on riling us; on getting our goat. [...] If you don't want them to get your goat, don't let them know where it is.

   2002, Barry Winbolt, “Looking for New Ideas”, in Difficult People: A Guide to Handling Difficult Behaviour, Seaford, East Sussex: ISR Publishing, Institute for Social Relations, published 2005, →ISBN, section 2, pages 191–192

   Synonyms: get someone's nanny, get someone's nanny-goat, get under one's goat, give someone the shits, aggravate, annoy, nettle, rankle