get the hang of

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

1. colloquialidiomaticTo begin to understand or manage at a basic level; to learn to handle with some skill.

   Driving feels awkward when you’re new to it, but it’s easy once you get the hang of it.

   5 more examples

   We got the hang of [caring for a baby], Kate and I, with some quiet, surprising guidance from a gentle male nurse whose touching lack of intrusion was so instinctive as to seem part of the pattern.

   1995, Gill Van Hasselt, Childbirth: Your Choices for Managing Pain, Taylor Pub, →ISBN

   He felt like he was playing a new board game and was just getting the hang of the rules.

   2002, Shelby Lewis, Simply Marvelous, page 83

   I'd hardly used them either, do you know what I mean; I was just getting the hang of them when the Lord and Master decided they had to come off. There was no consultation, no let's sit down and chat about the pros and cons, just woof, off with his bollocks.

   2008, Fabian Black, The Stationmaster's House, →ISBN, page 83

   The shotlist should be short — if you find yourself typing up more than one page per scene, you're not really getting the hang of it. Use common terminology whenever possible. From the shotlist, the DP can figure out, to some extent, how many lighting changes each scene will require.

   2013, Arthur Vincie, Preparing for Takeoff: Preproduction for the Independent Filmmaker

   But just when I thought I’d gotten the hang of things, a snake chased me into a deeper level of the labyrinth! Everything’s on hard mode down here.

   2018 March, Okina Baba, translated by Jenny McKeon, So I’m a Spider, So What?, volume 2, New York, N.Y.: Yen Press, →ISBN, back cover