get up to

verb

To do something, especially something that is forbidden or improper.

“Recently he's been getting up to all sorts of mischief.”

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Meanings

verbget up to (third-person singular simple present gets up to, present participle getting up to, simple past got up to, past participle (UK) got up to or (US) gotten up to)

present singular third person gets up to · participle present getting up to · past got up to · UK participle past got up to · US participle past gotten up to

  1. To do something, especially something that is forbidden or improper.

    Recently he's been getting up to all sorts of mischief.

    2 more examples

    I haven't seen you for a while. What have you been getting up to?

    The windows on one side of the large open-plan room overlook the nurses' accommodation for the nearby University College Hospital[…] The LRB's editor, Mary-Kay Wilmers, likes this view. She enjoys "seeing what the nurses get up to".

    2014 March 9, Elizabeth Day, quoting Mary-Kay Wilmers, “Is the LRB the best magazine in the world?”, in The Observer

Translations

Catalan cométrer
  • cométrerto do something, especially something that you should not do
Chinese Mandarin 幹 /干, 做
  • 幹 /干 (gàn)to do something, especially something that you should not do
  • 做 (zuò)to do something, especially something that you should not do
  • 搞出 (gǎochū)to do something, especially something that you should not do
  • 弄出 (nòngchū)to do something, especially something that you should not do
Finnish ryhtyä, touhuta
  • ryhtyäto do something, especially something that you should not do
  • touhutato do something, especially something that you should not do
French commettre
  • commettreto do something, especially something that you should not do
German begehen
  • begehento do something, especially something that you should not do
Italian commettere
  • commettereto do something, especially something that you should not do
Polish kombinować
  • kombinowaćto do something, especially something that you should not do
Russian вытворя́ть, вы́творить
  • вытворя́ть (vytvorjátʹ)to do something, especially something that you should not do
  • вы́творить (výtvoritʹ)to do something, especially something that you should not do
Spanish cometer
  • cometerto do something, especially something that you should not do
Cite this entry
APA

get up to. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/get%20up%20to

MLA

“get up to.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/get%20up%20to. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “get up to,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/get%20up%20to.

Source: get up to on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.