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Glite Dictionary
🤲 To reach 😠 To annoy 💰 To corrupt
to get at

to get at

10 7.9
To secretly try to influence someone with money or gifts
  • phrasal verb
translation icon : sobornar
  • She used her charm to get at the official's support for the controversial policy.
  • try to get at

So the, the press, I would argue, took advantage of the the intelligence officers to get at a politician they didn't like.

Examples

Synonyms

to bribe
vsto get at
140 4.1

Give money or gifts to a person in authority to make them do something dishonest

attempts to influence or corrupt by payment or other improper means
to pull strings
vsto get at
64 6.0

To secretly use people you know to get what you want

focuses on corrupting someone, often through payment rather than only using connections

How Corrupt

to bribe
140 4.1
to get at
10 7.9
to tempt
146 3.3
influence
806 2.3
to persuade
472 2.7

Surface Forms

get at infinitive
getting at present participle
gets at third person singular
got at past
got at past participle

Morphology

get + at

There is a loose, metaphorical link from the literal sense of 'get' (reach/obtain) plus the particle 'at' (targeting) to the idea of "reaching" or influencing someone, but the specific sense of attempting to influence or corrupt (especially by bribery) is not directly predictable from the constituents. The phrase is polysemous and uses a metaphorical extension of 'reach' to mean 'influence', so learners who know the words may sense a relation but would generally need prior exposure to this exact sense.

Etymology

Get at meaning 'to influence or corrupt' comes from the image of someone quietly getting close to a person with money or words to change them. If someone is 'got at' they have been reached and moved to act differently, often by improper means.