get the goods on

present singular third person gets the goods on · participle present getting the goods on · past got the goods on · UK participle past got the goods on · US participle past gotten the goods on · alternative have the goods on

1. idiomatictransitiveTo acquire knowledge or develop evidence that reveals the truth about someone's character or behavior, especially criminal behavior.

   "Bob, they've got the goods on you. There's a warrant out."

   1914, Peter B. Kyne, chapter 19, in The Long Chance

   4 more examples

   "You've got the goods on me. I can't deny I'm the man the police are lookin' for."

   1921, William MacLeod Raine, chapter 10, in Tangled Trails

   "With marked money and marked bottles, we ought to be able to get the goods on that gang."

   1922, B. M. Bower, chapter 14, in The Trail of the White Mule

   And the film shows how mother-care can be more convincing than a legal brief in getting the goods on the corporate villains.

   2000 April 6, Alexander Walker, "Erin Brockovich" (film review), London Evening Standard (UK) (retrieved 22 Nov 2011)

   [T]he state's flawed deregulation scheme practically invited unscrupulous behavior. Still, it's encouraging that Washington is finally getting the goods on the manipulators.

   2002 Sept. 26, "California Culprits" (editorial), New York Times (retrieved 22 Nov 2011)