Your ShelfYour Projects
Webster's Dictionary (1865)

2 entries under this word

Get

Gĕt, v. t.

verbtransitive

v. t. [imp. GOT (GAT, obs.); p. p. GOT (GOTTEN, obsolescent); p. pr. & vb. n. GETTING.] [A-S. getan, gitan, Icel. geta, to produce, obtain, O. H. Ger. gezan, to obtain, Goth. gitan, to obtain, bigitan, to find.]

  1. To procure; to obtain; to gain possession of; to acquire; to come by; to win, by almost any means; as, to get favor by kindness; to get wealth by industry and economy; to get land by purchase; and the like.
  2. To come into possession of; — only in the forms compounded with have and had.

Thou hast got the face of a man. Herbert. 3. To beget; to procreate; to generate. I had rather adopt a child than get it. Shak. 4. To obtain mental possession of; to learn; to commit to memory; to memorize; as, to get a lesson. It being harder with him to get one sermon by heart, than to pen twenty. Fell. 5. To prevail on; to induce; to persuade. Get him to say his prayers. Shak. 6. To procure to be, or to occur; — with a following participle. Those things I bid you do; get them dispatched. Shak. 7. To betake; to carry; — in a reflexive use. Get thee out from this land. Gen. xxxi. 13. He with all speed gat himself . . . to the strong town of Megs. Knolles.

☞ Get, as a transitive verb, is combined with all adverbs implying motion, to express the causing to, the effecting in, the object of the verb, of the kind of motion indicated by the preposition; thus, to get in, to cause to enter: to get out, to make come forth, to extract: to get off, to take off from upon any thing, to remove: to get together, to cause to come together, to collect; and the like. Syn.—To obtain; gain; win; acquire. See OBTAIN.

Gĕt, v. i.

verbintransitive

v. i. 1. To make acquisition; to gain; to be increased. We mourn, France smiles; we lose, they daily get. Shak. 2. To fall or bring one's self into a state or condition; to come to be; to become; — with a following adjective belonging to the subject of the verb. “To get rid of fools and scoundrels.” Pope. “Bathes, and gets drunk.” Dryden. His chariot wheels get hot by driving fast. Coleridge. To get ahead, to advance; to prosper. — To get along, to proceed; to advance. — To get a mile, or other distance, to pass over it in traveling. — To get among, to arrive in the midst of; to become one of a number. — To get asleep, to fall asleep. — To get at, to reach; to make way to. — To get back, to arrive at the place from which one departed; to return. — To get before, to arrive in front, or more forward. — To get behind, to fall in the rear; to lag. — To get between, to arrive between. — To get clear, to disengage one's self; to be released, as from confinement, obligation, or burden; also, to be freed from danger or embarrassment. — To get drunk, to become intoxicated. — To get forward, to proceed; to advance; also, to prosper; to advance in wealth. — To get home, to arrive at one's dwelling. — To get loose or free, to disengage one's self; to be released from confinement. — To get near, to approach within a small distance. — To get on, to proceed; to advance. — To get quit of, to get rid of; to shift off, or to disengage one's self from. — To get rid of, to disengage one's self from; also, to shift off; to remove. — To get up, to make ready; to prepare; as, to get up a celebration; also, to write, print, or publish; as, to get up an oration, or a directory.

☞ Get, as an intransitive verb, is used with a following preposition, or adverb of motion, to indicate movement or action on the part of the subject of the act, of the kind signified by the preposition or adverb; or, in the general sense, to move, to stir, to make one's way, to advance, to arrive, and the like; as, to get away, to leave, to escape: to get down, to descend: to get up, to rise, especially from a seat or bed: to get along or forward, to advance, to make progress; hence, to prosper, succeed, or fare: to get in, to enter: to get out, to extricate one's self, to escape: to get through, to traverse: also, to finish, to be done: to get to, to arrive at, to reach: to get off, to come from upon any thing, to dismount; also, to escape, to come off clear: to get together, to assemble, to convene.