goat

get someone's goat

Fig. to irritate someone; to annoy and arouse someone to anger. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to get your goat. Jean got Sally's goat and Sally made quite a fuss about it.

See also: get

separate the men from the boys and separate the sheep from the goats

Fig. to separate the competent from those who are less competent. (Not necessarily just about males.) This is the kind of task that separates the men from the boys. Working in a challenging place like this really separates the sheep from the goats.

See also: boy, men, separate

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act/play the goat  (informal)

to behave in a silly way, sometimes in order to make people laugh Insecure and lonely, he resorted to acting the goat to get people's attention.

See also: act

get your goat  (British, American & Australian informal) also get on your goat (Australian informal)

to annoy you It really gets my goat when people push past without saying 'Excuse me'. The kid never stops whingeing - he really gets on my goat.

See also: get

separate the sheep from the goats  (British, American & Australian) also sort (out) the sheep from the goats (British & Australian)

to choose the people or things of high quality from a group of mixed quality I'll look through the application forms and separate the sheep from the goats.

See also: separate, sheep

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get your goat

to make you very annoyed or angry The message on her answering machine is really annoying, and I think she leaves it on there just to get my goat.

See also: get

separate the men from the boys

to show which people in a group can do something difficult and which people cannot The five-day camping trip next month should separate the men from the boys!

See also: boy, men, separate