Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to alienate.

1951		Cusack & James Come in Spinner (1960) 309: I don’t want to turn the popsies off when they come cantering along to put their faces on.
1966		P. Willmott Adolescent Boys of East London (1969) 54: When I first discovered it I went really mad over it. Then after a while it turned me off a bit.
1979		‘Iceberg Slim’ Airtight Willie and Me 51: That joker really turned me off.
1999		Indep. on Sun. Culture 11 July 2: Jazz musicians have turned off more audiences by being too self-indulgent in their improvisations.
2000		Observer Screen 6 Feb. 9: The violence turned off his female fan-base.

2. (drugs) to deprive of a supply of drugs.

1960

C. Cooper Jr Scene (1996) 71: He kept turning him on and scoring and turning him on and scoring. Then turned him off.

3. to repel sexually.

1897		Portland Guardian 5 May 4/2: Shagger me shad if i didn’t ketch ’im huggin’ er. But she turned it off kind a carelesslike, so I let it go at that.
1964		Lavender Lex. n.p.: turn off:– To disgust; to repudiate.
1966		P. Willmott Adolescent Boys of East London 56: But that sort of thing turns you off after a while – you realize that if you can get it, so can anyone else.
1979		‘Iceberg Slim’ Airtight Willie and Me 15: There was something about the cloying stink of their juice stew [...] that turned me off.
1998		G. Burn Happy Like Murderers 181: He said the bump on their belly wasn’t sexy and turned him off.
2000		Guardian Editor 18 Feb. 9: Pretentious girls really turn me off. Opportunistic women really turn me off.

4. to lose interest in, esp. sexually.

1967		J. Rechy Numbers (1968) 36: Is there really someone else? Has he really turned off on me?
1970		Time 30 Nov. 13: We were sympathetic to the problems of the young and found ourselves increasingly turned off by friends who kept mouthing the same old clichés.