get on someone's nerves

get on (one's) nerves

To irritate, grate on, or exasperate one. Nothing personal, but your voice is really getting on my nerves. Tom's been really defiant ever since he started daycare, and it's starting to get on my nerves. You could tell that all the personal questions were getting on the actor's nerves.

See also: get, nerve, on

Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.

get on someone's nerves

Irritate someone, as in His fidgeting gets on the teacher's nerves, or, as T.S. Eliot put it in The Elder Statesman (1959): "How it used to get on my nerves, when I saw you always sitting there with your nose in a book." [c. 1900]

See also: get, nerve, on

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

get on someone's nerves

INFORMAL

COMMON If someone or something gets on your nerves, they irritate you. Camilla likes him but he gets on my nerves. She talks all the time and it gets on my nerves.

See also: get, nerve, on

Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2012

get on someone's nerves

irritate or annoy someone. informal

See also: get, nerve, on

Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017