English

Verb

get someone's back up

1. (idiomatic) To annoy or anger a person, either deliberately or inadvertently.

   That joke really got my boss's back up.

   • 1970, James N. Casavis, Principal's Guidelines for Action in Parent Conferences, ISBN 9780137020010, p. 121:

     Telling someone that her child can and should be doing better and not offering some solutions immediately gets my back up.

Synonyms

• get someone's dander up, get someone's Irish up

See also

• get one's back up
• put someone's back up