Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. complete, thorough-going, unqualified.

1812		T. Creevey letter May in Gore Creevey Papers (1948) 95: As good an opponent of the Tory Government as if he had been an out-and-out Radical.
1821		Egan Life in London (1869) 111: [note] The latter in smacking her lips, talks of her prime jackey, an out-and-out concern, and a bit of good truth.
1834		‘Of All The Blowings On The Town’ Flash Chaunter 5: Her father, he was lag’d for life, / An out-and-out Highwayman.
1841		J. Mills Old Eng. Gentleman (1847) 299: None o’ your puddle wish-wash runs in these veins, but clear, out-an’-out, genuine English blood.
1842		Wkly Rake (NY) 6 Aug. n.p.: The Whip may be made a tip-top, bang-up, slap-dash, first chop, out-and-out sporting sheet.
1856		C. Reade It Is Never Too Late to Mend 1 282: I hope [...] you don’t think I am such an out-and-out scoundrel as that Hawes.
1856		Melbourne Punch 20 Nov. 3/3: ‘Proposals for a New Slang Dictionary’ [...] O.K. —Adj. To rights, proper, stunning, of the right sort, prime, all serene, crummy, some, out-an-out, scrumtious, &c, of the initials of the old English words, Orle Korrect.
1862		‘Artemus Ward’ Artemus Ward, His Book 45: Just so soon as a man becums a reglar out & out Sperret rapper he leeves orf workin, lets his hare grow all over his fase & commensis spungin his livin out of other peple.
1878		C. Hindley Life and Times of James Catnach 281: Such a diabolical out-and-out crime as he committed.
1882		Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 6: Out and Out - Primed up to anything, excellent.
1882		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 2 Sept. 6/3: ‘I want a special prayer, a real square, solid, out and out prayer’.
1885		J.S. Borlase Blue Cap, the Bushranger 13/1: If you aren’t an out-and-out idiot you’ll follow him sharp.
1890		‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Colonial Reformer I 148: When it coms to anything out-and-out serious, act determined.
1899		Boy’s Own Paper 18 Mar. 388: I say, cap’en, and orficer, and my lads, that’s an out-and-out good idee.
1905		Memoirs of a Voluptuary (1906) 22: We’ll have no end of fun when Blackie comes; he’s the most out-and-out sort you ever came across.
1906		Lyonel Feininger ‘Kin-der-Kids’ [comic strip] You has to admit she’s an out an’ out sprinter!
1910		O. Johnson Varmint 396: He’s a thorough-going, out-and-out little varmint!
1920		Marvel 9 Oct. 16: ‘I’m an out-and-out rotter, nothing less!’ he told himself.
1922		B. Hecht A Thousand and One Afternoons [ebook] [T]he manicure girls in the barber shop give him the out-and-out sneer and the hat-check girls and even the floor girls [...]—all of whom he has tried to date up—they all respond with an identical raspberry to his invitations.
1930		J. Lait Put on the Spot 41: The Mayor wasn’t a bad sort. He was no out-and-out thief.
1939		K. Tennant Foveaux 264: Linnie who was becoming an out-and-out Communist.
1947		S. Lewis Kingsblood Royal (2001) 122: I think you may say I’m an out-and-out Liberal.
1958		W. Motley Let No Man Write My Epitaph (1960) 252: The place was out-and-out gay. The ‘truck-drivers’ were here [...] And the soft-spoken, sweet voiced young men with roving eyes.
1964		Larner & Tefferteller Addict in the Street (1966) 83: It was an out-and-out robbery, grand larceny.
1970		T. Parker Frying-Pan 206: You’re an out and out bastard, mate.
1982		J. Davis Dreamers 105: They was real bloody dinkum out and out bludgers.
1999		J. Poller Reach 37: I [...] was consequently seen as eccentric and effeminate, at worst reviled as an out-and-out fag.
2000		Indep. Rev. 19 May 3: There are only two out-and-out hoolies.
2006		D. Winslow Winter of Frankie Machine (2007) 122: Then there were the out-and-out wise guys, most East Coast higher-ups.

2. excellent, first-rate.

1829		Reading Mercury 6 Apr. 4/5: A pair of out-and-out Kersey Kicksies, got up slap, with pearl buttons.
1830		Egan Finish to the Adventures of Tom and Jerry (1889) 75: You have [...] missed some out-and-out events by your absence.
1832		Egan Bk of Sports 8: He stuck to his own wehicle, the Age! the bang-up age; the out and out AGE!
1835		Metropolitan Mag. XIV Sept. 334: Running on this way about a quarter of a mile my out-and-out pal, putting his bleeders into his prad galloped up to the first Jack.
c.1840		‘“Taking Off” of Prince Albert’s Inexpressibles’ in C. Hindley Curiosities of Street Lit. (1871) 36: I vant you to make me a hout-and-hout pair of kicksies.
1857		‘Leary Man’ in ‘Ducange Anglicus’ Vulgar Tongue (1857) 45: Harris’s [...] Slap Up Tog, And Out And Out Kicksies Builder.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor (1968) I 39: The ‘penny gaffs’ is rather more in my style; the songs are out and out, and makes our gals laugh.
1878		C. Hindley Life and Times of James Catnach 281: Pegsworth was an out-and-out lot.
1896		A. Morrison Child of the Jago (1982) 128: The original out-and-out benjamins, or the celebrated bang-up kicksies, cut saucy, with artful buttons and a double fakement down the sides.
1903		Truth (London) 18 June 1678/3: Slang terms: [...] fizzing, loud, nobby, no-flies, O.K., out-and-out, pick-me-up, pink, posted-up [etc] .
1999		Indep. Rev. 28 July 11: He’s an out and out humanist.