get stuck into

present singular third person gets stuck into · participle present getting stuck into · participle past got stuck into · past got stuck into

1. AustraliaNew ZealandUKGet busy with; become occupied with; become immersed in.

   2005, David Else & Oliver Berry, Lonely Planet: England If you really want to get stuck into a bit of archaeology, check out the Archaeological Resource Centre ...

   2 more examples

   1998, Gary McKay, In Good Company After pulling our boat up the beach there wasn’t much to do but collapse onto the sand and get stuck into some serious drinking.

   But although some timber for the house was eventually delivered, he never got around to the building stage. ‘I′ll hire some help and we'll get stuck into it,’ he would say, but the only thing he ever got stuck into was his vodka.

   2002, Gary Nash, The Tarasov Saga: From Russia through China to Australia, page 232

2. UKTo start eating.

   Dinner's ready! Quick, get stuck into it!

   3 more examples

   She took a big slurp of wine, and then we all got stuck into the food.

   2007, Kevin Brooks, The Road of the Dead, page 92

   ‘And get stuck into your breakfast, or I will be forced to relieve you of at least one of those splendid pork sausages.’

   2009, Robert Rankin, Retromancer, unnumbered page

   Then get stuck into one of the char-grilled steaks, the sesame-encrusted tuna, or slow-cooked lamb shank.

   2011, Pippa de Bruyn, Keith Bain, Frommer's South Africa, unnumbered page

3. AustraliaTo criticise someone; tell off; to get angry at; to attack.

   Why are you getting stuck into me all of the sudden? I didn't do anything!

   3 more examples

   My dad′s getting stuck into me at the moment. He doesn′t think my English is good enough.

   2003, Alasdair Duncan, Sushi Central, page 16

   Discussion, as Jackson notes, was lively, ‘with the union (through Cleary and Aarons) getting stuck into management and we getting stuck into them’.

   2006, Kenneth Stanley Inglis, Whose ABC?: The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 1983-2006, page 157

   2009, James Roy, Town, Easyread Large Bold Edition, page 22, Of course there are some kids who get stuck into him, and sometimes that′ll make him curl up like a poked snail. But they don't do that very much anymore, because most of the other kids get stuck into them when that happens.