get under someone's skin

present singular third person gets under someone's skin · participle present getting under someone's skin · past got under someone's skin · UK participle past got under someone's skin · US participle past gotten under someone's skin · alternative uncommon get underneath someone's skin

1. idiomaticTo irritate someone.

   She could get under his skin and drag on the raw places.

   1929, Edgar Wallace, chapter 57, in The Black

   2 more examples

   [T]his Bolshevist stuff gets under my skin. I've got a home and a family here. I started in to work when I was thirteen, and all I've got I've made and saved right here.

   1920, Mary Roberts Rinehart, chapter 15, in A Poor Wise Man

   The pope has not said if Milei’s tirades have got under his skin. “I know they say things about me but I ignore it for my mental health,” he said in a television interview. “I will pray for them.”

   2023 August 27, Uki Goñi, “The ‘false prophet’ v the pope: Argentina faces clash of ideologies in election”, in The Observer, →ISSN

2. idiomaticTo make a memorable impression or have a strong effect on someone; to impact someone's feelings, especially when such an effect is not expected or wanted.

   Some TV shows get under your skin with lovable characters or subtle writing.

   2003 July 28, James Poniewozik, “Body Shop”, in TIME, archived from the original on 30 Jan 2012

   1 more example

   More than 400 people died from heat in 2022, but there was one story, an African American teenager called Caleb Blair, which got under my skin.

   2023 February 17, Nina Lakhani, “Down to Earth: The Arizona teen whose death in extreme heat is a warning of tragic things to come”, in The Guardian, →ISSN