Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a sudden dash, esp. from the starting point in a game or sport.

1858		R.S. Surtees Ask Mamma 293: It being, if a find, a quick ‘get away’, all hands were too busy thinking of themselves and their horses.
1896		Ade Artie (1963) 55: ‘You got through all right, then?’ ‘A little slow on the get-away, but I made a Garrison finish.’.
1908		Cincinnati Enquirer 23 Aug. in Fleming Unforgettable Season (1981) 180: Ames blew up at the getaway.

2. (orig. UK Und.) an escape.

1860		R. Nicholson Rogue’s Progress (1966) 93: His appointments were invariably made at places where there were two or miore outlets - up courts and alleys with a safe ‘get away’ at their backs.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 122/2: Others need only sufficient [violence] to ‘square their jills’ and secure a ‘get-away’ (safe retreat).
1890		‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Colonial Reformer II 167: There’s no get-away, as there was then, to the mountains.
1902		J.H.M. Abbott Tommy Cornstalk 70: Fortunately [...] Boers do not often attack. When they do, there is usually no ‘get away’.
1908		‘O. Henry’ ‘The Clarion Call’ in Voice of the City (1915) 196: Then we’ll make a ‘get-away’.
1916		T.A. Dorgan in Zwilling TAD Lex. (1993) 43: Watching two hard boiled eggs try to make a getaway in a feed joint without slipping the waiter a tip.
1922		S. Lewis Babbitt (1974) 265: I wonder if I can’t make a getaway now?
1939		V. Davis Gentlemen of the Broad Arrows 18: I definitely rule out my cell as the place to make a ‘get-away’ from.
1944		J. Cary Horse’s Mouth (1948) 13: Then I pretended to take a call. And made my getaway.
1952		Lait & Mortimer USA Confidential 65: More than likely you’re wanted and making a getaway.
1968		J. Barlow Burden of Proof 105: They’d got another Jag, a real beauty, for the get-away.
1974		G.F. Newman You Flash Bastard 241: From planning to execution to getaway, every detail had been worked out.
1980		Batman No. 321 16: Should’ve known he’d planned his getaway!
1999		Indep. Rev. 19 Aug. 13: Instead of making a speedy getaway, Ray [...] subjects his increasingly unnerved brother to a barbed parody of a genteel tea-party.
2001		N. Barlay Hooky Gear 4: Laydeez an gentlemen a funny thing happened while I was makin my getaway tonight.

3. attrib. use of sense 2.

1927		C.J. Daly Snarl of the Beast 65: [chapter heading] The Getaway Car.
1935		P.W. Porter Reporter and the News 132: A neighboring merchant [...] pointed out the ‘getaway car’ deserted by its driver.
1940		R. Hughes Attorney for the People 120: The police traced the getaway car, through its license plate.
1953		R.S. Prather Too Many Crooks 61: In almost every well-planned professional murder the getaway car is followed by another automobile, the ‘crash car,’ which has only one purpose: to block off or delay pursuit.
1966		Life 8 Apr. 110: The rescuers parked the cumbersome red pantechnicon and one getaway car against Wandsworth's 25-foot red-brick wall.
1977		(con. 1940s) O. Manning Danger Tree 30: And what are your getaway plans this time, Major Cookson?
2010		Codella and Bennett Alphaville (2011) 21: Their getaway car accidentally ran into a labor protest.

4. the mode of escape, i.e. a road or alley.

1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 99/2: He told us that there was a ‘get-away’ from the ‘crib’ by a court that run along the back of the building.
1938		J. Curtis They Drive by Night 110: He opened one of the dining-room windows so as to fix himself a getaway.
1957		R. Prather Always Leave ’Em Dying 124: At least we’ve got a pretty good getaway planned.
1978		R. Caron Go-Boy! 207: We’ve got to check the alternate get-aways.

5. (US Und.) a train or vehicle used for escape.

1859		Matsell Vocabulum 36: Getaway. A locomotive; railroad train.
1999		Guardian Guide 17–23 July 28: The calm white-shark-cruising getaway.

6. an excuse.

1984

Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 456/2: from ca. 1925.

7. (US Und.) a successful act of robbery.

1903

H. Hapgood Autobiog. of a Thief 43: I got hold of the leather easily. It looked like a get-away, for no one on the sidewalk saw us.

8. an apartment used as a retreat, a ‘bachelor pad’.

2012

C. Stella Rough Riders 99: They remained quiet until they were inside Becker’s apartment [...] ‘This isn’t bad, your little getaway,’ Stewart said.