"get the goods on" meaning in English

See get the goods on in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Audio: en-au-get the goods on.ogg [Australia] Forms: gets the goods on [present, singular, third-person], getting the goods on [participle, present], got the goods on [past], got the goods on [UK, participle, past], gotten the goods on [US, participle, past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|get<,,got,got􂀿UK􂁀:gotten􂀿US􂁀> the goods on}} get the goods on (third-person singular simple present gets the goods on, present participle getting the goods on, simple past got the goods on, past participle (UK) got the goods on or (US) gotten the goods on)
  1. (idiomatic, transitive) To acquire knowledge or develop evidence that reveals the truth about someone's character or behavior, especially criminal behavior. Tags: idiomatic, transitive Synonyms: have the goods on Related terms: incriminate

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for get the goods on meaning in English (3.4kB)

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "gets the goods on",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "getting the goods on",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "got the goods on",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "got the goods on",
      "tags": [
        "UK",
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "gotten the goods on",
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "get<,,got,got􂀿UK􂁀:gotten􂀿US􂁀> the goods on"
      },
      "expansion": "get the goods on (third-person singular simple present gets the goods on, present participle getting the goods on, simple past got the goods on, past participle (UK) got the goods on or (US) gotten the goods on)",
      "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"
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          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
          "parents": [
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          "kind": "other",
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          "parents": [
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        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1914, Peter B. Kyne, chapter 19, in The Long Chance",
          "text": "\"Bob, they've got the goods on you. There's a warrant out.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1921, William MacLeod Raine, chapter 10, in Tangled Trails",
          "text": "\"You've got the goods on me. I can't deny I'm the man the police are lookin' for.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1922, B. M. Bower, chapter 14, in The Trail of the White Mule",
          "text": "With marked money and marked bottles, we ought to be able to get the goods on that gang.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2000 April 6, Alexander Walker, \"Erin Brockovich\" (film review), London Evening Standard (UK) (retrieved 22 Nov 2011)",
          "text": "And the film shows how mother-care can be more convincing than a legal brief in getting the goods on the corporate villains."
        },
        {
          "ref": "2002 Sept. 26, \"California Culprits\" (editorial), New York Times (retrieved 22 Nov 2011)",
          "text": "[T]he state's flawed deregulation scheme practically invited unscrupulous behavior. Still, it's encouraging that Washington is finally getting the goods on the manipulators."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To acquire knowledge or develop evidence that reveals the truth about someone's character or behavior, especially criminal behavior."
      ],
      "id": "en-get_the_goods_on-en-verb-Hb8BqdoF",
      "links": [
        [
          "evidence",
          "evidence"
        ],
        [
          "character",
          "character"
        ],
        [
          "behavior",
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        ],
        [
          "criminal",
          "criminal"
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      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, transitive) To acquire knowledge or develop evidence that reveals the truth about someone's character or behavior, especially criminal behavior."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "incriminate"
        }
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "have the goods on"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "transitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
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      "audio": "en-au-get the goods on.ogg",
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      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0e/En-au-get_the_goods_on.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "get the goods on"
}
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "gets the goods on",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
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    },
    {
      "form": "getting the goods on",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "got the goods on",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "got the goods on",
      "tags": [
        "UK",
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "gotten the goods on",
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "get<,,got,got􂀿UK􂁀:gotten􂀿US􂁀> the goods on"
      },
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    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
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    {
      "word": "incriminate"
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  ],
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        "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English light verb constructions",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with audio links",
        "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English transitive verbs",
        "English verbs",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1914, Peter B. Kyne, chapter 19, in The Long Chance",
          "text": "\"Bob, they've got the goods on you. There's a warrant out.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1921, William MacLeod Raine, chapter 10, in Tangled Trails",
          "text": "\"You've got the goods on me. I can't deny I'm the man the police are lookin' for.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1922, B. M. Bower, chapter 14, in The Trail of the White Mule",
          "text": "With marked money and marked bottles, we ought to be able to get the goods on that gang.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2000 April 6, Alexander Walker, \"Erin Brockovich\" (film review), London Evening Standard (UK) (retrieved 22 Nov 2011)",
          "text": "And the film shows how mother-care can be more convincing than a legal brief in getting the goods on the corporate villains."
        },
        {
          "ref": "2002 Sept. 26, \"California Culprits\" (editorial), New York Times (retrieved 22 Nov 2011)",
          "text": "[T]he state's flawed deregulation scheme practically invited unscrupulous behavior. Still, it's encouraging that Washington is finally getting the goods on the manipulators."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To acquire knowledge or develop evidence that reveals the truth about someone's character or behavior, especially criminal behavior."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "evidence",
          "evidence"
        ],
        [
          "character",
          "character"
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        [
          "behavior",
          "behavior"
        ],
        [
          "criminal",
          "criminal"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, transitive) To acquire knowledge or develop evidence that reveals the truth about someone's character or behavior, especially criminal behavior."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "transitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-get the goods on.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/0/0e/En-au-get_the_goods_on.ogg/En-au-get_the_goods_on.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0e/En-au-get_the_goods_on.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "have the goods on"
    }
  ],
  "word": "get the goods on"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 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.