"get on like a house on fire" meaning in English

See get on like a house on fire in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Audio: En-au-get on like a house on fire.ogg [Australia] Forms: gets on like a house on fire [present, singular, third-person], getting on like a house on fire [participle, present], got on like a house on fire [past], got on like a house on fire [UK, participle, past], gotten on like a house on fire [US, participle, past]
Etymology: By metaphor, reflecting the notion that housefires are archetypally roaringly quick and robust. Head templates: {{en-verb|get<,,got,got􂀿UK􂁀:gotten􂀿US􂁀> on like a house on fire|head=get on like a house on fire}} get on like a house on fire (third-person singular simple present gets on like a house on fire, present participle getting on like a house on fire, simple past got on like a house on fire, past participle (UK) got on like a house on fire or (US) gotten on like a house on fire)
  1. (simile) To immediately start a good relationship with someone. Related terms: like a house afire, get along like nobody's business, hit it off
    Sense id: en-get_on_like_a_house_on_fire-en-verb-aKGH3PaX Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English similes

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for get on like a house on fire meaning in English (2.6kB)

{
  "etymology_text": "By metaphor, reflecting the notion that housefires are archetypally roaringly quick and robust.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "gets on like a house on fire",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "getting on like a house on fire",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "got on like a house on fire",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "got on like a house on fire",
      "tags": [
        "UK",
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "gotten on like a house on fire",
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "get<,,got,got􂀿UK􂁀:gotten􂀿US􂁀> on like a house on fire",
        "head": "get on like a house on fire"
      },
      "expansion": "get on like a house on fire (third-person singular simple present gets on like a house on fire, present participle getting on like a house on fire, simple past got on like a house on fire, past participle (UK) got on like a house on fire or (US) gotten on like a house on fire)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English similes",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Those two met last Saturday at the party, and because they were both into juggling they got on like a house on fire.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2022 November 16, Paul Bigland, “From rural branches to high-speed arteries”, in RAIL, number 970, page 52",
          "text": "They've obviously never met before, but are getting on like a house on fire. Both are well-spoken and versed in the Queen's English.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To immediately start a good relationship with someone."
      ],
      "id": "en-get_on_like_a_house_on_fire-en-verb-aKGH3PaX",
      "links": [
        [
          "immediately",
          "immediately"
        ],
        [
          "start",
          "start"
        ],
        [
          "good",
          "good"
        ],
        [
          "relationship",
          "relationship"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "simile",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(simile) To immediately start a good relationship with someone."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "like a house afire"
        },
        {
          "word": "get along like nobody's business"
        },
        {
          "word": "hit it off"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-get on like a house on fire.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/4/48/En-au-get_on_like_a_house_on_fire.ogg/En-au-get_on_like_a_house_on_fire.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/48/En-au-get_on_like_a_house_on_fire.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "get on like a house on fire"
}
{
  "etymology_text": "By metaphor, reflecting the notion that housefires are archetypally roaringly quick and robust.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "gets on like a house on fire",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "getting on like a house on fire",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "got on like a house on fire",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "got on like a house on fire",
      "tags": [
        "UK",
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "gotten on like a house on fire",
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "get<,,got,got􂀿UK􂁀:gotten􂀿US􂁀> on like a house on fire",
        "head": "get on like a house on fire"
      },
      "expansion": "get on like a house on fire (third-person singular simple present gets on like a house on fire, present participle getting on like a house on fire, simple past got on like a house on fire, past participle (UK) got on like a house on fire or (US) gotten on like a house on fire)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "like a house afire"
    },
    {
      "word": "get along like nobody's business"
    },
    {
      "word": "hit it off"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English similes",
        "English terms with audio links",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English terms with usage examples",
        "English verbs"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Those two met last Saturday at the party, and because they were both into juggling they got on like a house on fire.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2022 November 16, Paul Bigland, “From rural branches to high-speed arteries”, in RAIL, number 970, page 52",
          "text": "They've obviously never met before, but are getting on like a house on fire. Both are well-spoken and versed in the Queen's English.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To immediately start a good relationship with someone."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "immediately",
          "immediately"
        ],
        [
          "start",
          "start"
        ],
        [
          "good",
          "good"
        ],
        [
          "relationship",
          "relationship"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "simile",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(simile) To immediately start a good relationship with someone."
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-get on like a house on fire.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/4/48/En-au-get_on_like_a_house_on_fire.ogg/En-au-get_on_like_a_house_on_fire.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/48/En-au-get_on_like_a_house_on_fire.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "get on like a house on fire"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-03 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.