Get over: meaning for illness, problems, and emotions
Understand get over in sentences about recovery, disappointment, shock, illness, and obstacles.
Get over means to recover from something or successfully pass a difficulty.
The image is simple: a problem is like a wall or obstacle, and you move over it to the other side.
Recovering from illness
Use get over for colds, flu, injuries, and tiredness when the person returns to normal.
It often appears in present perfect: I have not got over the flu yet.
Recovering emotionally
Get over is also common for disappointment, embarrassment, breakups, fear, or shock.
Be careful with tone. Telling someone to get over it can sound rude because it suggests their problem is not important.
Passing a difficulty
You can also get over an obstacle, a practical problem, or an initial worry.
In this use, it means the difficulty no longer blocks progress.
Examples
“It took me two weeks to get over the flu.”
“She still has not got over losing the final.”
“Once we got over the setup problem, the tool was easy to use.”
Quick practice
1. Complete: He has not ___ ___ the shock yet.
got over
2. Does get over always mean forget completely?
No. It usually means recover enough to continue.