Green’s Dictionary of Slang

get it v.

1. to be assaulted or beaten up.

[Scot](con. 18C) W. Scott Guy Mannering (1999) 149: I think we should be down upon the fellow, one of these darkmans, and let him get it well.
[US]E. Hunter ‘The Beatings’ in Jungle Kids (1967) 132: ‘And Diego got it like that, too,’ Marty said.
[US]C. Perry Portrait of a Young Man Drowning (1963) 30: If your father doesn’t find that loaf of bread you will get it good and proper.
[US]P. Crump Burn, Killer, Burn! 188: What the hell is she screaming about? It’s me that’s getting it.
[UK]B. Hare Urban Grimshaw 132: No one told them what to do and if anyone tried they got it.
[UK]G. Knight Hood Rat 111: As soon as the cklubbers see them up there they know someone’s going to get it.

2. (US) to be shot, wounded or killed.

[US]W.T. Porter Big Bear of Arkansas 131: Bang! Oh, dam you! you’ve got it! I know you is! [...] Yes, thar’s blood on the snow!
E. Marshall Story of the Rough Riders 197: Once in a while one of them would ‘get it.’ [...] When a man was hit in an outstretched arm ... he would whirl part of the way around before he fell.
[US]W. Irwin Confessions of a Con Man 72: Ten men are killed by [elephants] to one that gets it from the big cats.
[UK]A.G. Empey Over the Top 35: Don’t duck at the crack of a bullet, Yank; the danger has passed, [...] Always remember that if you are going to get it, you’ll get it, so never worry.
[US]H.C. Witwer Classics in Sl. 30: [He] decides he’ll croak Hamlet before he gets it himself.
[US]‘Goat’ Laven Rough Stuff 206: I knew then I’d have my own gang with me, and if I did get ‘it’, then I should have my death avenged.
[US]W. Simmons Joe Foss Flying Marine 100: ‘Poor old Joe finally got it,’ I could imagine the boys saying. ‘He’s shark bait.’.
[US]‘Hal Ellson’ Tomboy (1952) 24: ‘Suppose we got shot?’ [...] ‘I was the one that almost got it.’.
[US]M. Puzo Godfather 87: Freddie would have gotten it today with his old man but my people had strict orders not to gun him.
[US]V.E. Smith Jones Men 155: The fact that T.C. got it from somebody don’t change a thing.
[US]‘Joe Bob Briggs’ Joe Bob Goes to the Drive-In 129: We get everything here. One lesbo scene, two visits to the Hole [...] one scene where a girl gets it in the stomach with a rat-tail comb.
[UK]A. Frewin London Blues 31: But this was a double whammy: two days after Jack Kennedy got it, Oswald got it too!
[Ire]L. McInerney Blood Miracles : I’m glad Dan got it, and not me.
[UK]Indep. on Sun. Culture 14 May 18: The pants manufacturer got it at his Florida estaminet.
[Ire]Breen & Conlon Hitmen 250: ‘Just leather him out of it in the chest, then he’s getting it in the crust of the head’.

3. to be punished or reprimanded.

[UK]Dickens Pickwick Papers (1999) 350: ‘But the plaintiff must get it,’ resumed Mrs Cluppins. ‘I hope so,’ said Mrs Bardell.
[UK]J. Greenwood Night in a Workhouse 46: ‘Then they was goin’ to wallop me again, so I thought I’d cheek it out; so I up and told the master all about it.’ ‘And got it wuss?’.
Stowe We and Our Neighbours 79: Any boy that don’t toe the crack gets it .
[US]C.L. Cullen Tales of the Ex-Tanks 354: How was that for a man [...] to get it coming and going, both ends from the middle.
[US]H. Green Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 261: Here’s where he gets it good and plenty.
[US]Van Loan ‘Scrap Iron’ in Taking the Count 229: He’ll get it one of these days. They all do.
[Aus]Sport (Adelaide) 3 Apr. 4/7: Stoker H will get it if he is caught going home with Ivy C .
[UK]E. Raymond Tell England (1965) 111: I can’t be whacked; I’m too old. But you’ll get it, Rupert.
[UK]R. Westerby Wide Boys Never Work (1938) 155: Hope the schmock gets it good and strong.
[US]I. Shulman Amboy Dukes 76: Oh, boy [...] now I’m gonna get it!
[US]J. Thompson Criminal (1993) 53: Skysmith had gotten it from the Captain, and Dudley had gotten it from Skysmith.
[UK]The Who ‘I’m a Boy’ 🎵 I’m a boy, I’m a boy / But if I say I am, I get it.
[Aus] in K. Gilbert Living Black 304: Whatever the way, he followed the rules or he got it.
[UK]J. Hoskison Inside 15: One day you’re really gonna get it, Mano.
[UK]K. Sampson Outlaws (ms.) 139: You’re getting it, you little cunt!

4. to be subjected to abuse or nagging.

[US]Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 24 July 14/2: Charlie Daniels says he can stand an awful lot and he gets it some times pretty lively from tbe cranks while he is umpiring.
[US]W.J. Kountz Billy Baxter’s Letters 51: I can gaze into the dim, hazy distance and see where every one of these coy, clever fellows is going to get it, and get it good, and I am glad of it.
[Aus]E. Dyson Spats’ Fact’ry (1922) 38: My Arthur’s got a gran’mother and two ailing sisters to support, [...] and I get it about them three nights a week.
[US]W. Brown Monkey On My Back (1954) 38: He would turn the radio down low, but he would ‘get it all over’.

5. of a man, to have sexual intercourse; of a woman, to be subjected to intercourse.

[US] (ref. to late 19C) N. Kimball Amer. Madam (1981) 133: The husband who wasn’t getting it properly at home – he could come to get his ashes hauled, his wick dipped – both expressions popular in these middle class joints.
[Aus]N. Lindsay Redheap (1965) 46: ‘Here’s me, on and off, chasin’ Maggie Trimble for a year; no more hope of gettin’ it than flyin’’ .
[UK]R. Westerby Wide Boys Never Work (1938) 178: She laughed softly. ‘Come and get it?’ she said.
[US](con. 1944) N. Mailer Naked and Dead 275: How’s it feel gettin’ it steady.
[US]J.P. Donleavy Ginger Man (1958) 6: At least you get it steady.
[UK]G.W. Target Teachers (1962) 140: You must be getting it regular.
[US]G.V. Higgins Digger’s Game (1981) 24: She likes getting it, nothing more’n that.
[US]R.C. Cruz Straight Outta Compton 90: He will get it and then let Clive have her. They’ll run a train on her.
[US]T. Dorsey Stingray Shuffle 162: It’s not right because you’re not getting it.

6. to catch a venereal disease.

[NZ]D. Davin For the Rest of Our Lives 51: ‘Old Sexy just got out of hospital to-day. Remember him?’ ‘The bloke that got it in the tool at Galatos?’ ‘That’s the bloke. And a humdinger he had too. At shortarm inspection the M.O. used to go green with envy.’.

7. (US) to go at great speed.

[US] in Pittsburgh Courier 14 Sept. 15: Jump, Get it – work fast [HDAS].
[US]J. Allen Assault with a Deadly Weapon 114: So I tell JoJo to get it, and when I say ‘Get it!’ JoJo immediately pulls out of the traffic and onto the sidewalk.

8. (US) to be pleasing, attractive; used in negative contexts, e.g. Sorry, but he just doesn’t get it.

[US]Current Sl. III–IV (Cumulative Issue) 54: Get it, v. To be attractive or pleasing.

In phrases

get it down (v.)

(US) to master, e.g. a job of work.

[US]B. Hamper Rivethead (1992) 88: This job fucking sucks. Until you get it down your hands will ache [...] and your back will feel like it’s been steamrollered.
get it in one (v.)

to succeed in doing, in understanding etc. at the first try, esp. in a sexual context.

[UK]A. Bleasdale ‘Jobs for the Boys’ in Boys from the Blackstuff (1985) [TV script] 48: snowy: But y’ need the money. chrissie: Got it in one.
[UK]Guardian 15 Jan. 🌐 What’s a hoon? It’s an Australian term for a stupid person given to drinking and aggression. Not to be confused with pommy defence secretary Geoff Hoon? Got it in one.
get it in the neck (v.)

see separate entry.

get it off (v.) (also get ’em off, get one off) [get off v.2 ]

(US) to reach orgasm, to copulate, to derive pleasure.

[US]J.T. Farrell ‘Spring Evening’ in Fellow Countrymen (1937) 170: I’d get ’em off on these hot days, sitting in my white flannels with some rich jane on the veranda of a club like that, sipping my liquor.
[US](con. 1925) J.T. Farrell My Days of Anger 132: ‘Let’s go to Twenty-two and get laid.’ ‘Dopey, you’re too drunk to get ’em off.’.
[US]National Lampoon Sept. 52: Never gotten one off with a garette before, eh? [HDAS].
[US]L. Kramer Faggots 89: I want to get laid. Get it off. I need to come.
get it off with (v.) [var. on have it off v.]

of a man, to have sexual intercourse.

[NZ]G. Newbold Big Huey 130: There were five or more other guys in the hail at the time who were getting it off regularly with the poofters.
get it on

see separate entries.

get it up/get it up for (v.)

see separate entries.

get it where Maggie wore the beads (v.) [i.e. get it in the neck v. (1)]

to be hit or hurt, to suffer in the worst place, or fig. in the worst poss. way given the context.

[US]Argosy 21 110/2: He will get it from us exactly in that portion of the human frame where the bottle got the cork, where Maggie wore the beads, and where the giraffe has the advantage over other birds—in short, in the neck.
[US]McClure’s Mag. 38 270: When your pa learns that you kids has been puttin’ up such shenanigans on me jes’ because he’s off to the races, it’ll be wholesome for the spot o’ you where Maggie wore the beads — not!
[US]Liberal Democrat (KS) 8 Jan. 7/5: Any administration that attempts to poke compulsory military training down the throats of people is due to get it where Maggie wore the beads at the next election.
[US]Liberal Democrat (KS) 20 Nov. 4/1: Next Thursday is when the tueky is doomed to get it where Maggie wore the beads. President Wilson has issued [a] national thanksgiving proclamation.
[Scot]Aberdeen Jrnl 27 May 2/1: The Hyde Park orator who asked his audience where Maggie wore her beads [...] with the object of enforcing the lesson that the Allies must punish Germany [...] ‘in the neck’.
[Scot]Eve. Teleg. (Dundee) 31 May 3/5: We are all hoping that Fritz is going to get it where Maggie wore the beads [...] In the neck. And his ‘neck’ is enormous.
H. Van Hoof ‘Les Prénoms Dans La Langue Imagée’ in Meta XLIII No. 2 🌐 se faire tancer; to get a scolding, to get it where Maggie wore the beads.
get it where the chicken got the axe (v.) [i.e. get it in the neck v. (1)]

to suffer in the worst possible way, according to context.

[US]Sun (NY) 27Mar. 7/1: When he made a rush and hit me all his might / I got it where the chicken got the axe / Just because I made too many sassy cracks.
[US]El Paso Dly Herald (TX) 19 Oct. 1/6: Supt. Hurley says [...] the first man caught violating the new law, will get it where the chicken got the axe.
Dly Public Ledger (Marysville, KY) 3 June 1/4: When he is caught he will get it where the chicken got the axe.
C.J.C. Hyne ‘The Pirate’ in Escape Agents 🌐 Now see to it that you don’t play any monkey tricks, or you’ll get it quick and sudden where the chicken got the axe.
[US]Day Book (Chicago) 9 Nov. 24: We’ll Get It Where the Chicken Got the Axe.
The Leavenworth (WA) 5 July 1/4: If I have to take this in hand do not interfere, or you will get it where the chicken got the axe, axe, axe.
[UK](con. WW1) P. MacDonald Patrol 70: ‘I’m a Jonah [...] Whoever gets tangled up with me [...] gets it right slick where the chicken got the axe’.