Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to die.

1764		Foote Patron in Works (1799) I 333: Indeed, if Lady Pepperpot should happen to pop off —.
1778		Mme D’Arblay Diary (1891) I 11: What a pity it would have been had I popped off in my last illness, without knowing what a person of consequence was!
1790		C. Dibdin ‘The Greenwich Pensioner’ Collection of Songs I 172: Thank’d God I was not popped off, / And went to sea again.
c.1805		‘Meg of Wapping’ Jovial Songster 70: So she popp’d off, and Tom [...] Spent the shiners of old Meg of Wapping.
1831		R. Ryan Everybody’s Husband I i: When the old lady pops off, they’ll be tolerably snug.
1839		Comic Almanack Nov. 196: It’s a pleasanter trick to be popp’d off quick, / Than be kill’d by lingering stages.
1852		F. Smedley Lewis Arundel 32: Some of the fools about here wanted me to put up for the country if he popped off.
1871		H.B. Stowe Sam Lawson’s Oldtown Fireside Stories (1881) 37: He [...] was one o’ the sort that might pop off any time.
1874		‘Old Calabar’ Won in a Canter III 144: ‘However, at the end of two years she popped off, leaving Jack about two thousand a year, besides his pay’.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 8 Aug. 6/2: Our life hangs by a thread, you see, / And when that’s cut, why, so must we – / At death we never ought to scoff, / For, sad to say, we soon ‘pop off.’.
1892		Albert Chevalier ‘Wot Cher!’ 🎵 ‘Ma’am,’ says he, ‘I ’ave some news to tell, Your rich Uncle Tom of Camberwell, Popped off recent, which it ain’t a sell, Leaving you ’is little Donkey Shay.
1901		D. Cotsford Society Snapshots 263: Awfully ill, poor thing . . . might pop off at any moment.
1904		Sun. Times (Perth) 20 Mar. 1/1: The love-and-lucre-owning lady also notes with anxiety the poppings-off in the East.
1905		Marvel III:63 7: If he don’t pop off mighty sharp, it’s odds on you’ll assist him!
1912		Day Book (Chicago) 11 Oct. 12/2: I always thought he would pop off suddenly. When did he died?
1922		Joyce Ulysses 8: You saw only your mother die. I see them pop off every day in the Mater and Richmond and cut up into tripes in the dissecting room.
1935		A. Christie Three Act Tragedy (1964) 142: Funny thing is he popped off just the same way as old Strange did.
1948		(con. 1944) N. Mailer Naked and Dead 640: We get hit, pop off, no priest.
1952		W.R. Burnett Little Men, Big World 139: A couple of months ago he made a new will, and he told me over a month ago that everything was in order in case he popped off.
1965		C. Brown Manchild in the Promised Land (1969) 229: The junkies [...] were popping off right and left from an O.D. or from getting shot.
1977		G.F. Newman Villain’s Tale 110: But you see if my old mum didn’t pop off yesterday.
1981		P. Reading ‘Legacies’ in Tom O’Bedlam’s Beauties 48: Peregrine’s popping off like that must have upset the old bird, I suppose.
1999		Guardian G2 29 Nov. 22: Her mother is dead (’All at once [...] she just popped off’).

2. to depart.

1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 138: ‘Popp’d off,’ ran away.
1866		Hull & Eastern Counties Herald 4 Jan. 8/3: ’Yes; let’s pop off,’ said Prince Orloff [...] and they popped off.
c.1900		Collins & Godfrey [perf. Vesta Victoria] Now I have to call him Father 🎵 ‘Pop off, its time to go to bed’.
1908		A.N. Lyons Arthur’s 46: ‘You pop off!’ repeated ’Erb.
1913		C. Mackenzie Sinister Street II 1114: What, say good-bye to dear old Leicester Square and pop off for good and all?
1923		Wodehouse Leave it to Psmith (1993) 444: She popped off and married a cove called Jackson.
1932		D.L. Sayers Have His Carcase 257: I’d better pop off home.
1940		E. O’Neill Iceman Cometh 155: Hardly the decent thing to pop off without saying good-bye to old Harry.
1945		J.B. Priestly Three Men in New Suits 123: ‘Pop off, you!’ shouted Eddie.
1953		Mad mag. Jan.–Feb. 22: Go on back home or I’ll paste you one! Pop off!
1956		‘Charles Raven’ Und. Nights 93: I decided to pop off to Jersey for a holiday.
1969		R. Rendell Best Man To Die (1981) 125: If Carol chose to pop off with her boy friend for a couple of months, she wasn’t one to stand in her way.
1971		Wodehouse Much Obliged, Jeeves 102: So I popped in, popped the book in the briefcase and popped off.
1981		Willy Russell Educating Rita I i: Yes, that’s it, you just pop off and put your head in the oven.
2011		J.J. Connolly Viva La Madness 405: Dougie keeps popping off to the khazi for fat rails.

3. to happen, to start.

1993		Snoop Doggy Dogg ‘Murder was the Case’ 🎵 Late night I hear toothbrushes scrapin on the floor / Niggaz gettin they shanks, just in case the war pops off.
2002		‘Touré’ Portable Promised Land (ms.) 160: We Words (My Favorite Things) [...] It’s crackin. What’s poppin? What’s hapnin? What’s cracka-lackin? Whatever’s clever.
2007		B. Coleman Check the Technique 437: ‘[H]e had to come by our school and meet these people, because things were popping off there’.
2015		P. Beatty Sellout (2016) 102: A shoot-out would pop off at the swap meet.
2020		G. Krauze Who They Was 7: All he really has to do is drive us to wherever the move is gonna pop off .