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Glite Dictionary
🚌 To board (transport) 📈 To make progress 🤝 To be friendly 📺 To appear (media) 🚴 To climb onto 👴 To age ⏰ To become late
to get on

to get on

29 3.9
Become older as time passes
  • phrasal verb
  • /ɡɛt ɑn/
translation icon : envejecer
  • As I look in the mirror, I realize that I am getting on and my hair is becoming gray.

Examples

  • That's great when you're a kid, but... ...you're getting on, you're pushing 30, slugger.

    On the Waterfront (1954)

  • " I only mean, I'm thirty-five, and thirty-five is getting on, especially in the tropics.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • I think better man, I forget it's getting on in years now.

  • A man likes a little security when he starts to get on in years.

    Fiction book (2002)

  • Well, I guess I'd better be getting on home now.

    Payday (1973)

  • "Jonathan," she broke in, "it's over; accept the fact and get on with your life."

    Fiction book (1997)

  • I heard you were living here, wanted to see how you're getting on.

    The Laureate (2023)

  • After several decades, he felt that he was definitely getting on and needed to start planning for retirement.

  • Many people find it hard to accept that they are getting on as they approach their golden years.

Synonyms

to age
vsto get on
130 1.0

To become or make something older

refers simply to naturally becoming older rather than causing or showing signs
to senesce
vsto get on
  • Formal
9.9

To grow old over time

is the everyday way to say becoming older rather than technical process

How Old

to get on
29 3.9
to grow up
∞ 1.3

Surface Forms

get on infinitive
got on past
gotten on past participle
getting on present participle
gets on third person singular

Morphology

get + on

The meaning 'to board' is directly compositional from 'get' (to move/arrive/enter) plus the locative/onto sense of 'on', so a learner who knows both words can infer entering or boarding a vehicle. This verb+particle pattern is frequent in English and has clear parallels in other languages, making it readily understandable at B1.

Etymology

Get on (to become old) paints life as a road you travel: you 'get on' the road of years and go further along it. So, when you get on, you are 'growing older'.