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The Collaborative International Dictionary
To get away with

Get \Get\ (g[e^]t), v. i.

  1. To make acquisition; to gain; to profit; to receive accessions; to be increased.

    We mourn, France smiles; we lose, they daily get.
    --Shak.

  2. To arrive at, or bring one's self into, a state, condition, or position; to come to be; to become; -- with a following adjective or past participle belonging to the subject of the verb; as, to get sober; to get awake; to get beaten; to get elected. To get rid of fools and scoundrels. --Pope. His chariot wheels get hot by driving fast. --Coleridge. Note: It [get] gives to the English language a middle voice, or a power of verbal expression which is neither active nor passive. Thus we say to get acquitted, beaten, confused, dressed. --Earle. Note: Get, as an intransitive verb, is used with a following preposition, or adverb of motion, to indicate, on the part of the subject of the act, movement or action of the kind signified by the preposition or adverb; or, in the general sense, to move, to stir, to make one's way, to advance, to arrive, etc.; as, to get away, to leave, to escape; to disengage one's self from; to get down, to descend, esp. with effort, as from a literal or figurative elevation; to get along, to make progress; hence, to prosper, succeed, or fare; to get in, to enter; to get out, to extricate one's self, to escape; to get through, to traverse; also, to finish, to be done; to get to, to arrive at, to reach; to get off, to alight, to descend from, to dismount; also, to escape, to come off clear; to get together, to assemble, to convene. To get ahead, to advance; to prosper. To get along, to proceed; to advance; to prosper. To get a mile (or other distance), to pass over it in traveling. To get among, to go or come into the company of; to become one of a number. To get asleep, to fall asleep. To get astray, to wander out of the right way. To get at, to reach; to make way to. To get away with, to carry off; to capture; hence, to get the better of; to defeat. To get back, to arrive at the place from which one departed; to return. To get before, to arrive in front, or more forward. To get behind, to fall in the rear; to lag. To get between, to arrive between. To get beyond, to pass or go further than; to exceed; to surpass. ``Three score and ten is the age of man, a few get beyond it.'' --Thackeray. To get clear, to disengage one's self; to be released, as from confinement, obligation, or burden; also, to be freed from danger or embarrassment. To get drunk, to become intoxicated. To get forward, to proceed; to advance; also, to prosper; to advance in wealth. To get home, to arrive at one's dwelling, goal, or aim. To get into.

    1. To enter, as, ``she prepared to get into the coach.''
      --Dickens.

    2. To pass into, or reach; as, `` a language has got into the inflated state.'' --Keary. To get loose or To get free, to disengage one's self; to be released from confinement. To get near, to approach within a small distance. To get on, to proceed; to advance; to prosper. To get over.

      1. To pass over, surmount, or overcome, as an obstacle or difficulty.

      2. To recover from, as an injury, a calamity. To get through.

        1. To pass through something.

        2. To finish what one was doing. To get up.

          1. To rise; to arise, as from a bed, chair, etc.

          2. To ascend; to climb, as a hill, a tree, a flight of stairs, etc.

Usage examples of "to get away with".

It is lying, you know, and the novelist has to spend a lot of time during the course of his writing worrying about whether he is going to get away with his lies.

Vimes ploughed through it, twigs whipping at his bare legs, and then he was out and on to the old towpath, mud splashing up over the blood.

Despite his irritating mannerisms and current foul temper, he did have a reputation as an officer who got things done, and there was a limit to how much the Service would allow even someone with his exalted connections to get away with depending on his subordinates to carry the load for him.

It was the cold violence of the rape that marked Middleton as a dispassionate criminal: he expected to get away with it.

At least she would be able to get away with dark glasses for the occasion.

That'll slow them up for a while at least, maybe long enough for us to get away with it!

Aunt Pitty had a theory, largely shared by Atlanta, that Rhett had managed to get away with the mythical millions of the Confederate treasury.