get under someone's skin

English

Alternative forms

• get underneath someone's skin (less common)

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

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Verb

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

2. (idiomatic) To irritate someone.
   • 1920, Mary Roberts Rinehart, chapter 15, in A Poor Wise Man:

     [T]his Bolshevist stuff gets under my skin. I've got a home and a family here. I started in to work when I was thirteen, and all I've got I've made and saved right here.

   • 1929, Edgar Wallace, chapter 57, in The Black:

     She could get under his skin and drag on the raw places.

   • 2023 August 27, Uki Goñi, “The ‘false prophet’ v the pope: Argentina faces clash of ideologies in election”, in The Observer‎^[1], →ISSN:

     The pope has not said if Milei’s tirades have got under his skin. “I know they say things about me but I ignore it for my mental health,” he said in a television interview. “I will pray for them.”

4. (idiomatic) To make a memorable impression or have a strong effect on someone; to impact someone's feelings, especially when such an effect is not expected or wanted.
   • 2003 July 28, James Poniewozik, “Body Shop”, in TIME‎^[2], archived from the original on 2012 January 30:

     Some TV shows get under your skin with lovable characters or subtle writing.

   • 2023 February 17, Nina Lakhani, “Down to Earth: The Arizona teen whose death in extreme heat is a warning of tragic things to come”, in The Guardian‎^[3], →ISSN:

     More than 400 people died from heat in 2022, but there was one story, an African American teenager called Caleb Blair, which got under my skin.

See also

• get in someone's hair