IdiomAnimals
English
Englishget someone's goat
Meaning: To irritate or annoy someone.
Example: “What really gets my goat is people who talk during movies.”
Origin: American, first seen in print in 1909, and the exact origin has been lost despite one very popular guess. The most repeated story, promoted by H.L. Mencken, holds that a goat was stabled with a nervous racehorse to calm it, and that a gambler betting against the horse would have the goat quietly removed the night before a race to fray its nerves — but no actual evidence supports the story, racehorse or otherwise. A likelier, duller root is the older verb "to goad," needling someone until they react.
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