get someone's Irish up

English

Etymology

From a supposed propensity of Irish people to be easily and severely angered.

Pronunciation

  • Audio (General Australian):(file)

Verb

get someone's Irish up (third-person singular simple present gets someone's Irish up, present participle getting someone's Irish up, simple past got someone's Irish up, past participle (UK) got someone's Irish up or (US) gotten someone's Irish up)

  1. (potentially offensive) To anger or annoy someone.
    • 1979, David Garth, New York Magazine, page 14:
      "It's so crazy I've got to believe they're either paranoid or trying to get his Irish up so he will run [and split the anti-Carter vote in the primaries]. My guess is it's paranoia."

Synonyms

This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.