get the goods on

Idioms  

1. Also, have the goods on. Acquire or possess confidential information about someone, especially of a damaging or incriminating kind. For example, “Trouble is, they've got the goods on me” (Owen Johnson, The Lawrenceville Stories, 1909). [Slang; 1870s] Also see get on one.

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Example Sentences

Not only are there spots that you can chase all over town, some have found more permanent homes — residencies, if you will — where you can reliably get the goods on a regular schedule.

From Seattle Times

The private investigator Howard hires to get the goods on Chuck's flim-flamming little brother is himself a con man, one who helps set up Howard so entirely in Cliff's and his first mediation meeting with Sandpiper's legal team that taking a settlement is the only choice they have.

From Salon

This is how the Russians have operated for years -‑ they get the goods on people and then they can get you to do what they want.

From Salon

The Interrogation Room Detectives in Grand Rapids, Mich., try to get the goods on suspects in a home-invasion robbery that turned deadly in the debut installment of this true-crime series.

From Los Angeles Times

Min said that although The Hollywood Reporter tried to get the goods on “that looming, ominous, bellicose force” named Harvey for many years — “we had white boards full of names of women” — he was a master at protecting himself, just as Hugh Hefner was, by the veneer of power he cultivated, by giving to liberal causes and cultivating friends in the media and politics.

From New York Times